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This report originally appeared in the May 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News
New York state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has announced that his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has arrested 22 current and former health care workers in two separate cases of nursing home neglect after hidden surveillance showed conduct that endangered residents at Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility in Troy, N.Y., and the Williamsville Suburban Nursing Home in Amherst, NY.
The investigation has led to the arrest of 14 people concerning the incidents at Northwoods, and eight individuals for incidents at Williamsville. The hidden cameras had been introduced by the consent of family members. According to the attorney general's statement, at Northwoods the staff routinely failed to turn an immobile resident; failed to administer medications; failed to treat a resident's bed sores; aides failed to check for incontinence or change undergarments; and falsified medical records to conceal their actions. At Williamsville, the investigation determined staff routinely failed to properly transfer a resident in and out of bed; one aide failed to provide a range of motion therapy; two nurses failed to administer insulin; provide skin and wound treatment; failed to check the resident's vital signs; and medical records were falsified to conceal the actions.
Cuomo's office has routinely used hidden cameras to obtain evidence of patient mistreatment in facilities. To date, the attorney general says, 30 nursing home employees have been convicted based on surveillance recordings. The corporate owner of one nursing home has been convicted and another has settled a civil suit as a result of the hidden camera investigation. The defendants in the case are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
