New York nursing home providers could soon face additional scrutiny during the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers have called for an independent investigation into operators’, and the state health department’s, response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In April, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) appointed the state’s attorney general and health department to lead an investigation into the COVID-19 outbreaks in New York nursing homes. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have questioned whether the state can lead that type of investigation.
A group of Senate Republicans on Monday called for the probe into the crisis at nursing homes and asked Democrats to convene a public hearing to investigate Cuomo administration’s handling of the situation, the Buffalo News reported.
“An independent investigation is the only way to ensure transparency and find out what happened in those nursing homes and why. Residents and families deserve answers that can only be found through an investigation by impartial experts. It is inappropriate for the Department of Health to lead a probe into its own procedures,” said Sen. Patrick Gallivan (R), a ranking GOP member on the Senate health committee.
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D) has also suggested the governor needs to re-examine his probe into nursing home deaths, according to the report. Gottfried noted that the attorney general’s office serves as a lawyer for the state, which includes the health department.
“I think the Health Department should not be the entity doing the investigating because the Health Department is part of what ought to be investigated,” Gottfried said. “For as long as I can remember, the Health Department’s enforcement efforts have been seriously understaffed and their enforcement efforts have been lax. Whatever inadequacies there are in the nursing home situation, the Health Department for decades has had a large part of the responsibility for that.”
New York has had more coronavirus-related infections and deaths than any other state, by far. More than 5,300 nursing home residents in the state are believed to have died from COVID-19 as of Wednesday.
New York also recently became the epicenter of a treatment firestorm when Gov. Cuomo ordered nursing homes to accept COVID patients from hospitals, causing an outcry from long-term care providers and, eventually, the many in the general public. Cuomo finally walked back on that position earlier this week.
