Firemen don personal protective equipment as they enter the Cobble Hill Health Center nursing home,
one of the worst hit residences by the pandemic in Kings County. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Nursing homes ordered to
report COVID-19 cases
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 24-30, 2020 3
DEATH’
reel from coronavirus
curve for sure, we got in right
in the beginning,” said Koch.
Other homes are still
scrambling to stock up on protective
supplies with no end of
the pandemic in sight — and
the market for more masks,
gloves, and other supplies is
bare. Some group homes have
put up huge sums of money
just to be entered into the running
for receiving the lifesaving
supplies, without any
guarantee they would even receive
it.
After $2.6 billion in budget
cuts over the last ten years,
and the drawn-out delay of a
yearly three percent cost of
living funding increase from
the state, this is no small feat
for most homes — but with
lives on the line they have little
choice, said Koch.
“If you have nothing, or
here’s a chance, suddenly that
risk becomes life or death,”
she said. “Even if you’re a nonprofi
t, you fi nd that money and
you do it.”
For their part, Clune and
his fellow advocates at NYDA
argue that a change in policy
to prioritize group homes
would help facilitate supply allocation
more than an uptick
in funding — and they’re continuing
to push for a change in
the state’s priorities with the
state legislature and various
agencies.
“This should have nothing
to do with funding,” Clune
said. “It should
have absolutely
everything
to do with
protecting
the people
who are
within the
faci lities
and the
public at
large.”
BY ROSE ADAMS
Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued
an executive order on
April 17 mandating that nursing
homes and outpatient assisted
living facilities report
COVID-19 cases and deaths
to family members within 24
hours.
The mandate came just
one day after southern Brooklyn
lawmakers voiced concerns
about the residences’
lack of transparency.
“We’ve received multiple
complaints from constituents
about nursing homes in southern
Brooklyn not being transparent
about COVID-19
outbreaks,” wrote Councilmen
Mark Treyger
(D–Coney Island), Justin
Brannan (D–Bay
Ridge), and Alan Maisel
(D–Marine Park)
in the April 16 letter
to state health
offi cials. “We’ve
also heard reports
of patients dying
in nursing homes
with pneumoniatype
symptoms,
but no tests are
being counted to
confi rm whether
or not residents had
COVID-19.”
The letter also alleged
that nursing
homes are sending
patients to local
hospitals without
informing their
families, forcing
sick employees
— who, like
many on the
front lines, lack proper personal
protective equipment —
to come to work.
“Our communities deserve
transparency. Nursing
home residents and staff,
as well as families who have
loved ones in these facilities,
deserve transparency,” the
pols wrote.
Cuomo’s offi ce replied to
the lawmakers the next day,
pointing to the new executive
order.
“Previously, State Department
of Health issued guidance
asking these facilities
to communicate this information
to families; this new
order makes that guidance
mandatory,” the reply read,
according to Councilman
Mark Treyger.
Hours after the order was
issued, state health offi cials
released a report delineating
the COVID-19 death toll
at nursing homes throughout
the state. Kings County
reported 155 coronavirus-related
deaths across nine nursing
homes, with 55 occurring
at Cobble Hill Nursing Home
— more than any other nursing
home in the state.
The report, however, is
based on a survey that accounts
for less than half of
the nursing home deaths and
doesn’t include fi gures from
outpatient facilities or group
homes which have been notoriously
diffi cult to track.
Outside one outpatient
psychiatric home in Coney
Island, neighbors have witnessed
an infl ux of ambulances,
but haven’t been able
to fi nd information about the
facility’s COVID-19 death toll.
“The average number
of emergency ambulances
(not medical transportation
ambulettes) arriving at
the home has increased to at
least three a day over the last
three days that I have been
able to observe,” said neighborhood
watchdog Orlando
Mendez about Oceanview
Manor Home for Adults on
April 10. “That doesn’t count
what might be arriving there
during the overnight or wee
hours.”
The number of ambulances
outside Oceanview
Manor has since decreased,
Mendez said, but residents
and staff still don’t wear face
masks or adhere to social distancing
measures.
“Up to 20 residents can still
be seen outside the home or
the nearby boardwalk when
the weather permits,” he told
Brooklyn Paper on April 16.
“There is no social distancing
between the observed residents.
Very few of them wear
face masks. There is no apparent
staff supervising the
residents at the outside of the
home that I’ve witnessed.”
Reps for the state’s Department
of Health and Oceanview
Manor did not release
the number of COVID-19 cases
or deaths at the facility when
asked. Instead, a spokesman
for the for-profi t psychiatric
home claimed that the facility
is following protocols, and
said its residents and staff are
practicing social distancing
and are given PPE.
Photo by Janet Koch