NY Sen. Skoufis advances bills related to coronavirus in nursing homes
State Sen. James Skoufis has introduced three bills tied to the investigation by a committee he heads about how COVID-19 has been handled at nursing homes in New York.
Skoufis, D-Cornwall, chairs the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, which has been looking into how the state handled data regarding nursing home deaths from COVID and related matters.
The senator’s office said the following bills could be approved by the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday.
• S.1783: This bill would direct the state Department of Health to establish and implement an infection inspection audit and checklist for residential care facilities, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in New York.
• S.1784: This bill would require adult-care facilities to have quality-assurance committees and also make infection control a focus of such facilities’ quality-assurance plans.
• S.3185: This bill would require residential health care facilities to provide information to prospective residents about where a list of violations and other actions taken against the facility can be found.
Sen. Sue Serino, R-Hyde Park, said the intent of Skoufis’ bills is admirable, but “not a single one of them would take effect for months.
“They do absolutely nothing to address the current COVID-19 crisis in New York’s nursing homes and are being used to distract from the fact that the supermajorities (Democrats) in the Legislature refuse to take the immediate action necessary to launch a thorough investigation into the state’s handling of the COVID crisis in these facilities that would ultimately better protect residents, support hardworking staff, and get loved ones the answers they deserve,” Serino said in a statement.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said on Jan. 28 that 12,743 long-term care residents had died of COVID as of Jan. 19, far greater than the official tally of 8,505 reported that day. The higher number was consistent with a report released just hours earlier by state Attorney General Letitia James charging the number of COVID-related deaths among New York nursing home residents could be 50% higher than the official figure, largely because New York was one of the only states to count only those who died on nursing home grounds, not those who later died in a hospital.