Families of Dead Nursing-Home Residents Deserve Answers

When facing criticism, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has a simple playbook. Their first instinct is to dig in their heels. They insinuate that questions are being asked in bad faith. Legitimate oversight is waived off as politically motivated. 

If that doesn’t work, they try to blame President Donald Trump. 

Under normal circumstances, this is a frustrating, disappointing practice. When grieving families are looking for answers and accountability, it becomes something even worse — it’s inhumane. 

More than 5,800 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 in our nursing-home facilities, the highest such death toll in the country. For some context, California has suffered 3,300 COVID deaths across the entire state. The statistics are grim, but the stories are much worse. The New York Times reported that “terrified residents were pleading with the outside world for help” as “the bodies of dead residents piled up in makeshift morgues.”

I cannot imagine how someone could argue that those nightmarish results are acceptable. It’s hard to fathom that a leader wouldn’t want to review the procedures and decisions that caused an unmitigated disaster that claimed thousands of vulnerable lives. The governor, however, recently dismissed questions into his administration’s nursing-home policies. 

“It’s the political season, I get it,” said the governor. Cuomo went on to blame President Trump, insisting that his outrageous decision to require New York nursing homes to accept COVID-19-positive patients was simply complying with CDC guidelines. 

That’s not true. The CDC guidelines counsel admittance of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes on a case-by-case basis that accounts for the facility’s resources, isolation capacity, and PPE. The CDC is clear: if a facility does not meet the rigorous standards laid out in its transmission-based precautions, the patient should not be admitted until he/she is no longer a transmission risk. 

 The directive from the governor’s health department on March 25 was a mandate to accept positive patients, period. 

The governor claims his number-one priority was our nursing home residents. That’s not true. His top priority at the time was maintaining emergency hospital capacity. It seems as though he did not want nursing-home patients who were recovering from the virus to occupy hospital beds needed for extremely ill patients requiring emergency care. In and of itself, that is not a terrible conclusion. 

 What’s inexcusable is sending positive patients right back to their nursing home, regardless of whether or not that facility had the ability protect its other vulnerable residents. What’s inexcusable is not pursuing other options, including isolating these recovering patients in empty hotels and dormitories. What’s unforgiveable is allowing COVID-19-positive nurses to continue working in nursing homes. What’s inexcusable is failing to develop strict isolation protocols, not delivering needed resources, and failing to hire emergency staff. Rather than develop a new plan to meet an unprecedented challenge, the governor simply shielded nursing-home operators from legal liability, stripping families of what little leverage they had to demand answers. 

 I’m calling for an independent investigation of the crisis in our nursing homes. We cannot let the governor blame the media. We cannot let the governor blame Washington, D.C. We need answers. It’s what our government needs to plan for the future. It’s what grieving families deserve right now.        

Brian M. Kolb (R,I,C–Canandaigua) represents the 131st Assembly District, which encompasses all of Ontario County and parts of Seneca County. Contact him at kolbb@nyassembly.gov