Independent, non-partisan investigation needed on nursing home deaths
The families of the over 6,400 people who lost their lives in nursing homes across New York State during the height of the COVID-19 crisis deserve answers and a fair and unbiased investigation to find out what really happened that led to these tragic deaths.
This week, the New York State Health Department and Health Commissioner, who is appointed by the Governor, released an internal report that blamed the deaths of the nursing home residents on staff.
Oddly, the report claims that the March 25th order by the Cuomo Administration
which barred testing of the coronavirus for those being placed or returned to nursing homes was not a factor in deaths.
According to ProPublica, “If a hospital determined a patient who needed nursing home care was medically stable, the home had to accept them, even if they had been treated for COVID-19. Moreover, the nursing home could not test any such prospective residents — those treated for COVID-19 or those hospitalized for other reasons — to see if they were newly infected or perhaps still contagious despite their treatment.
“It was all laid out in a formal order, effective March 25. New York was the only state in the nation that barred testing of those being placed or returning to nursing homes.”
I first called for legislative hearings and an independent investigation into the Administration’s handling of COVID-positive patients being placed into nursing homes back in early May when this situation first became clear.
On May 28th, my Senate Republican colleagues and I put an amendment on the Senate Floor to direct $100 million from federal CARES Act funds to nursing homes, assisted living and adult care facilities to help purchase testing supplies, PPEs, as well as train and hire additional staff.
I appreciate the work of the state Health Commissioner, who as I previously noted, works for the Governor, but the Health Department’s report should not be the final word on this subject.
Given the magnitude of deaths during this terrible crisis, the families need the truth about what happened and some degree of closure over the loss of their loved ones and that can only be achieved through complete and total transparency.
That means a thorough investigation by healthcare professionals appointed to a commission in a bipartisan way to work together in a non-partisan effort and then report the results to the families, public, media, legislature and Governor.
This should be done in concert with robust legislative hearings by the Senate and Assembly. Anything other than that will surely fail the test of total transparency and forever be tainted.
My legislation would create a state commission to investigate what happened and look at the regulations and the oversight safety processes impacting New York State’s nursing homes leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The bi-partisan Commission would consist of five members: one each appointed by the Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, Assembly Speaker and Assembly Minority Leader, and chaired by an appointee of the New York State Attorney General.
Each appointee must have expertise in health care and health care policy issues.
Commission members would not be paid and they would have subpoena power. A report to the Legislature of findings and recommendations for the future would be publicly issued by November 30th.
My legislation takes the politics out of getting to the bottom of this terrible tragedy because this investigation would be overseen by bi-partisan appointees from both houses of the legislature.
I’m calling on every elected official and candidate running for office to speak out and support a fair and independent investigation into the thousands of lives lost because of the placement of COVID-19 patients in nursing homes.
If the Governor and Health Commissioner are so confident of the findings in their internal report, then they should be eager for an independent investigation to examine this and welcome the opportunity for more eyes on this issue, right?
We owe it to the families of those who lost their lives and the future safety of these facilities to get answers and help prepare for a second wave of the virus or a future pandemic.