Syracuse.com reporters have fielded more than a hundred phone calls from residents of Van Duyn nursing home and their families in the weeks since James T. Mulder reported the desperate, filthy and life-threatening conditions inside the facility.
Inspectors from the state Health Department documented instances of staff failing to administer medications properly, residents being fed cold or inappropriate food, residents sitting in their own waste for days, residents denied showers and toothbrushes, residents dressed only in gowns or with no clothes at all.
After Mulder’s story ran, our phones started ringing. Michelle Breidenbach reported more hair-raising stories of frequent bedsores, people falling out of bed, overworked staff turning off call buttons, residents unable to eat because they could not feed themselves and other problems. More than one resident ended up calling 911 for help.
That’s how desperate they were for someone to hear their complaints.
The mistreatment of sick, vulnerable people in Van Duyn’s care is immoral. The for-profit owner of the home must answer for the disgraceful conditions described by state inspectors and family members.
But who will make them answer? The government agencies responsible for watching over the health and safety of nursing home residents, and for holding the owner accountable, are failing utterly in that mission. They were slow to respond to the conditions at Van Duyn and are reluctant to use all of the tools at their disposal to compel nursing home operators to change their ways.
For example, the federal government has the power to cut off payments to the home for new admissions, depriving it of new customers and cutting into profits. CMS threatened to stop paying Van Duyn over the staff’s lax use of masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but it backed off after determining the violations had been corrected. Compliance with mask rules is important, especially in light of the heavy toll Covid took in nursing homes and Van Duyn’s abysmal vaccination rate among staff. But what about the other horrors documented by the state’s inspection? They should be reason enough to stop the flow of federal money to the owner of Van Duyn, the for-profit Upstate Services Group.
A PR agency speaking for the company blamed staffing challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic for problems at the facility. That may be true, but it’s not fair to lay blame for Van Duyn’s problems at the feet of overworked and underpaid workers.
Patrick Calli, the nursing home’s administrator, said the findings in the most recent inspections were isolated deficiencies that do not indicate widespread or chronic problems. The record shows otherwise.
Van Duyn’s problems with patient care go back at least a decade when it was owned and operated by Onondaga County. In 2013, the county sold Van Duyn to private owners, led by Uri Koenig, an accountant, and Efraim Steif, a nursing home administrator, both based in Rockland County. Their company also operates Central Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Syracuse and 10 other homes in the state.
Koenig and Steif should be made to answer publicly for the shoddy treatment of Van Duyn residents.
CMS should stop new admissions to Van Duyn until the owners can show they have the capacity to provide proper care to the people who are already there.
The New York state Legislature, which oversees the state Health Department, should call hearings and subpoena witnesses. Lawmakers should examine the way nursing homes are inspected and penalized for violations. The current protocols are checking off all the boxes but are not working to protect residents from indignity and harm.
Attorney General Letitia James should assign her Medicaid fraud task force to investigate conditions at Van Duyn and bring criminal or civil charges, if warranted.
Onondaga County washed its hands of Van Duyn nearly a decade ago, but members of the legislature and the county executive should use their bully pulpits to demand action for their constituents living there.
Van Duyn’s residents and their loved ones have raised the alarm. Syracuse.com amplified it. Now, who’s listening?
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