The state of New York and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) conduct routine inspections, surveys, and investigations on every nursing home statewide. These inspectors identify serious concerns, health violations and safety deficiencies that require immediate correction.
If the facility fails to make necessary adjustments, improvements and corrections to their policies and procedures in the level of care they provide every resident, the nursing home regulators can designate the Home as a Special Focus Facility (SFF) and add the Center to the Medicare deficiency watch list. This designation means they will undergo additional surveys and investigations every year until regulators are confident that any significant improvement made at the facility’s permanent.
Approximately two years ago, The Eleanor Nursing Care Center received the regulator designation of Special Focus Facility. At that time, the home was added to the watch list. Likely, the facility will remain under scrutiny for the next few years. Some of the serious deficiencies, health violations and deficiencies involving this facility are listed below.
This Long-Term Care Home is a 120-certified bed Center providing cares and services to residents of Hyde Park and Dutchess County, New York. The ‘for profit’ Facility is located at:
419 North Quaker Lane
Hyde Park, NY 12538
(845) 229-9177
In addition to providing skilled nursing services, the facility also offers:
The state of New York routinely updates their long-term care home database systems to reflect all dangerous hazards, filed complaints, safety concerns, health violations, incident inquiries, and opened investigations. This publicly available data can be found on numerous sites including Medicare.gov. Many individuals use this information as an effective tool for determining where to place a parent, grandparent, rehabilitating spouse or disabled child in a facility in the local community that provides the highest level of care.
Currently, The Eleanor Nursing Care Center maintains an overall two out of five stars compared to all nursing homes in the United States. This ranking includes one out of five stars for health inspections, four out of five stars for staffing issues, and three out of five stars for quality measures. Over the last three years, the New York Nursing Home Regulatory State Agency has received seventeen formally filed complaints and seven facility-reported issues that after investigations resulted in citations. Some of the problematic deficiencies, violations, and citations involving this facility include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated September 29, 2015, the state investigator noted that the facility failed “to implement written policies and procedures to provide care to cords with comprehensive care plans to meet the resident’s needs and prevent neglect.” Specifically, the investigator found that the facility “failed to ensure activities of daily living including showers, daily bathing, incontinent care, turning and positioning, and nutrition was provided for [four residents] an additional six [residents] who were observed not to have had any care for over six hours.”
The state investigator interviewed a resident at the facility who stated “she was very sore all over from her fall the day before. She stated that one Aide was cleaning her, and she fell from the bed. She was cleaning me alone because her partner never came to help her. She further stated she fell flat on her face and at first thought that the Aide was trying to transfer her and couldn’t say exactly how it happened.” The resident stated during the interview that “at first it did not hurt, and she told staff she was alright but later she had a headache, so her niece asked the facility to send her out to the hospital to be checked.”
The state investigator attempted to interview the Certified Nursing Assistant providing care that day, but the CNA assigned “was not available for an interview due to suspension. There was no facility statement of the occurrence from the CNA assigned.
As a part of the investigation, the surveyor interviewed the facility’s Registered Nurse Supervisor on the morning of September 3, 2015, who stated that “she had been called on to the first floor because of a fall and the resident had no visible injury. The resident told her she was fine. As far she as remembered the resident was on the floor on her back, and the CNA told her the resident’s legs slipped off the side of the bed, and she was not able to stop the fall. She then added the CNA was not supposed to be doing cares for the resident alone, [because] the resident is a two-person assist. She did not recall what the staffing levels were for this date.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated September 29, 2015, the state surveyor noted that the facility “did not ensure that all residents receive adequate supervision and assisted devices to prevent accidents.” This deficiency, in part, affected a resident “who fell out of bed when [their] Care Plan was not followed.” And additional two residents “wandered outside the patio undetected by staff, and [a third resident] wandered to the basement undetected by staff.”
Documentation also revealed the two residents “were observed smoking on the back [patio] that it without supervision, and [a sixth resident fell and was found] with their face between the guardrail and mattress.” The surveyor noted that “this resulted in no harm with the potential to affect a large portion or all of the facility residents’ health and safety that was not in immediate jeopardy.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated September 29, 2015, surveyors noted that the facility “did not maintain an environment free of pests in that flies were observed throughout the facility. This [deficiency] resulted in no actual harm with the potential for minimal harm.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 24, 2016, the state surveyor noted that the facility “did not ensure that the necessary care to maintain the highest practicable physical and psychosocial well-being was provided for two residents.” The surveyor noted that “Care Plans developed for a resident with severe cognitive impairment was developed to address the resident’s “psychosocial needs and the use of psychoactive medication.
Specifically, a Mood Care Plan dated April 19, 2016, stated that the goal for the resident was to have positive benefit from antidepressant medication as evidenced by no signs or symptoms of depression. Interventions to achieve this goal included administering antidepressant [drugs], providing emotional support, reporting to the physician, and providing recreational and religious activities.” However, the resident’s Nursing Notes of April 19, 2016, to May 4, 2016 “revealed no documented behavioral symptoms.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 24, 2016, the state investigator noted that the facility “did not demonstrate that each resident’s drug regimen was free from unnecessary medications. This [failure] was evident for [one resident] reviewed for unnecessary medications. Specifically, the interdisciplinary team did not follow a systematic care process consisting of assessing behavioral changes, implementation of non-pharmacological interventions, and valuation of interventions for effectiveness [before] initiating the use of antipsychotic medication.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated July 6, 2016, the state investigator noted that the facility “did not ensure that medications were available for timely ministration for [one resident] reviewed for mood and behavior [to] promote the highest practicable level of physical and until well-being.” The surveyor noted that specifically, the “facility did not ensure that a controlled drug used to treat generalized anxiety disorder was available for administration in a timely manner per the physician’s orders.”
In a separate summary statement of deficiencies dated December 22, 2016, the state investigator noted the facility “did not provide the care and treatment for [one resident] reviewed for positioning [to] achieve the highest practicable level of physical well-being. Specifically, the resident was not provided a safe and comfortable positioning while seated in the reclining chair (Geri-chair) during meals.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 29, 2017, the state surveyor noted that the facility failed to “ensure that a comprehensive assessment accurately reflected the special treatment programs [for a resident].” Specifically, the resident’s Admission Minimum Data Set “was not accurately coded to reflect the resident was receiving [their appropriate medical] treatment.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 29, 2017, the state surveyor noted the facility “did not provide care and services to maintain a resident’s highest practicable physical well-being. Specifically, fluids monitoring was not conducted for [a resident] reviewed for specific treatment was identified as a risk for dehydration.”
As a part of the investigation, the investigator noted findings including physician’s orders dated June 6, 2017, that “indicated the resident was placed on 1500 mL fluid restriction daily. The breakdown indicated that 1200 mL will be provided by diet and 240 mL by nursing.” The resident’s Nutritional Assessment Document and Nutrition Care Plan dated June 6, 2017 “identified the resident as at risk for dehydration secondary to 1500 mL daily fluid restriction.”
However, the investigator reviewed the resident’s Nurse's Notes dated June 2, 2017, through June 20, 2017, that revealed “sporadic documentation including fluid intakes inadequate, fluid intakes fair and continue 1500 mL restriction. There was no delineation of how much fluid the resident received in a 24-hour period and during each shift.”
The surveyor interviewed the facility’s Unit Registered Nurse Manager on June 20, 2017, who stated that “the resident as on a daily 1500 mL fluid restriction and stated further there was no documentation to show that the resident was adequately monitored for fluid intakes per day.” The Nurse also stated that the Medication Administration Record “has nothing recorded to show how much fluids the resident should get during each medication pass.”
During an interview with the Director of Nursing, it was revealed that “there was no document approved that showed adequate monitoring of the resident’s fluid intake [and] she will follow up and put measures in place to address the issue.” An interview was conducted with the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) who provided the resident care. The CNA stated that it is the CNA’s responsibility “to document intake of meals and fluids after each meal into the Electronic Medical Record.”
If you suspect your loved one has suffered harm through abuse, neglect or mistreatment while a patient at The Eleanor Nursing Care Center, contact a personal injury law office now. An attorney working on your behalf can handle every aspect of your case. Your lawyer can file a claim, build your case, present evidence and negotiate an acceptable out of court settlement or present evidence at your jury lawsuit trial.
Contact us today! No upfront payments are necessary because personal injury attorneys accept all nursing home abuse claims for compensation and wrongful death lawsuits through contingency fee agreements. This arrangement allows immediate legal representation without payment until the cases successfully resolved and your family receives monetary recovery for your loved one’s damages.
Sources:
Attorney Jennifer Wilson
Licensed in New York
Chicago Nursing Home Injury Lawyer Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home