NUMBERS DO NOT LIE: GOV
Vows Wash. Hts. senior-deaths probe
An upper Manhattan nursing home with at least 46 coronavirus deaths has just 13 on New York state’s official list — and Gov. Cuomo on Friday warned of potential prosecution if there’s been a coverup.
“They submit those numbers under penalty of perjury. You violate, you commit fraud, that is a criminal offense, period,” said Cuomo, who noted that he’s a former state attorney general.
“So they can be prosecuted criminally for fraud on any of those numbers.”
State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker called the deaths at the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights an “evolving situation.”
Cuomo said they would be reviewed as part of a broad investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James and the state Department of Health.
He and Zucker made the remarks during the governor’s daily briefing in Albany in response to a report that at least 98 Isabella residents have died since the pandemic struck, with 46 having tested positive for COVID-19.
Another 52 deaths are suspected to be the result of the virus, NY1 reported.
Mayor de Blasio called the figures “horrifying.”
“This is a staggering toll we’re hearing about now, and I’m shocked,” he said.
Hizzoner added, “I think the one thing we now know about the nursing homes is the status quo cannot continue, to say the least, and something very different has to happen.”
Cuomo and Zucker have come under fire for a March 25 directive from the state DOH that barred nursing homes from denying admission to “medically stable” coronavirus patients discharged from hospitals. Critics have said the order allowed the disease to spread among extremely vulnerable residents.
The state DOH’s latest count of coronavirus-related nursing-home deaths showed only 13 residents had died as of Wednesday at Isabella, which has a refrigerated trailer for storing bodies parked in a lot to the left of its main entrance.
A since-removed message on the Isabella Web site said that in addition to the deaths on the state list, another 19 residents died in hospitals, according to NY1.
That message also said another 37 deaths in the facility and one at a hospital were suspected to have been caused by COVID-19.
In a statement on Friday, a nursing-home spokeswoman, Audrey Waters, said, “From the beginning of this pandemic, Isabella has reported truthful and accurate data requested by the Department of Health.”
Waters said that as of Wednesday, there had been 20 confirmed COVID-19-positive deaths in the nursing home and 26 of residents hospitalized with the disease, as well as 40 suspected COVID-19related deaths in the nursing home and 12 more of hospitalized residents.
The Isabella is one of two nursing homes run by the nonprofit Metropolitan Jewish Health System of Brooklyn, which also offers home, hospice and palliative care for adults and children and is involved in research, education and training in palliative care.
The organization spent about $50 million during 2017, including paying CEO Alexander Balko nearly $1.4 million and former CEO Eli Feldman more than $1.2 million, according to its most recent IRS filing.
The Metropolitan Jewish Health System also spent nearly $1 million on marketing and a little less on legal services that same year.
State court records show that the Isabella has been named in more than 40 lawsuits alleging wrongful death, malpractice and negligence since 2012.
Some suits claimed residents were left in chairs and on beds for extended periods of time, leading them to develop pressure sores, infections and severe pain.
At least nine cases ended in settlements that totaled more $1.4 million, the records show.