North Country Gazette

NYS: Nursing Home’s “Operator” Not A Legal Entity

Posted on Saturday, 23 of February , 2008 at 9:18 pm

GLENS FALLS—Is the Eden Park “Health Care Center” in Glens Falls operating legally?

According to the New York State Department of State, Division of Corporations, the answer is no.

On Sept. 19, 2007, according to the state Department of Health, Certificates of Need were issued to Glens Falls Crossings LLC, Catskill Crossings LLC, Poughkeepsie Crossings and Utica Crossings LLC for the operation of the nursing homes doing business under the Eden Park name in those cities.  According to the DOH website, those entities are the new operators of the four Eden Park Health Centers in New York State.

However, the DOS Division of Corporations told The North Country Gazette Thursday, Feb. 21, there is no record of a limited liability company under the name of Glens Falls Crossings LLC “nor do we have a record of an assumed name filed under the name of Eden Park Health Care Center” nor are the other “Crossings” registered with the state.

The Warren County Clerk’s office says there’s no record of Glens Falls Crossings LLC doing business in the county.

The North Country Gazette had written an extensive article regarding the Eden Park facilities on Feb. 9 and in particular, the extensive history involving poor care of residents in Eden Park facilities.

With days of the appearance of NCG’s article, the website for Glens Falls Crossings LLC which was shown to be “under construction” disappeared from the Internet and remains unavailable. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/02/09/no_eden_park_paradise/

Prior to NCG’s article, if one performed a “Google” search for Glens Falls Crossings, they were led to a website at www.glensfallscrossings.com which said it was “under construction” and to “check back soon”.  The website was supposedly “created” by Creative Genius of Saratoga Springs and the domain was registered by National Health Care of Lynbrook, LI in June 2007.

The domain registration says the title of the website is “Glens Falls Crossings Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation”, a non-existent entity with the Department of State. The domain registration says it is affiliated with Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation which specializes in “skilled nursing services for patients and families seeking long term care with dignity and respect for their individualized needs”.  But Cold Springs officials say they’ve never heard of it.

On Thursday, Feb. 21, the same day as the state’s response to NCG confirming that Glens Falls Crossings, the purported operator of Eden Park nursing home in Glens Falls was not a legal entity, the mother of NCG’s publisher died, a victim of alleged negligence and poor care at the Glens Falls nursing home.

In enforcement actions announced last spring by the state Department of Health for the last quarter of 2006, three Eden Park facilities were cited. The Cobleskill facility was cited for giving substandard care, putting their residents in jeopardy or causing resident harm.  As of last December, the Cobleskill facility was not allowed to admit any new Medicaid or Medicare residents until the care issues were corrected.  It is no longer owned by Eden Park.

Eden Park’s four other nursing homes—Glens Falls, Catskill, Poughkeepsie and Utica and an assisted living center in Troy, are said to be in the process of being sold to a group from Lynbrook, LI, operating under the name of Marvin Ostreicher.

Ostreicher, president of the National Healthcare Associates, is listed as a director of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities and the owner of 17 skilled nursing facilities.

How can one do business in the state without being legally registered, especially a health care facility?

In the state of New York, all LLC’s formed or qualified to do business in the state, are required to publish a notice of formation. This requirement does not affect the good standing status of the LLC; however, an LLC is required to complete this requirement in order to have access to the New York State court system. The publication is made at the county level in two newspapers as assigned by the local county recorder, for six consecutive weeks.

New York requires most businesses to obtain a business license and pay a fee if operating in the state.

Section 206 of the Limited Liability Company Law requires a notice related to the formation of a limited liability company (LLC) to be published in two newspapers. The newspapers must be designated by the county clerk of the county in which the office of the LLC is located. An affidavit of publication from each newspaper must be filed with the Department of State. A Certificate of Publication, with the affidavits of publication of the newspapers annexed thereto, must be submitted to the Department of State, with a $50 filing fee.

According to the Department of State, the four “Crossings LLC” entities, supposedly operating Eden Park nursing homes in the state, are not registered with the state as required.

Previous complaints of abuse and neglect involving the Eden Park facility in Glens Falls have been filed with the state Department of Health and were either not investigated or simply shoved aside.

In a report issued by the  Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services last February, following an inspection of the Glens Falls nursing home, despite the deficiencies and findings that the facility didn’t investigate reports of missing controlled substances and failure of the staff to follow physicians’ orders for the patients along with inoperative call buttons,  the federal agency determined that the Glens Falls facility was in compliance with the Life Safety Code requirements for Long Term Care Facilities. February 2007 Report 

The 10-page report issued last February states that “the facility must not employ individuals who have been found guilty of abusing, neglecting, or mistreating residents by a court of law; or have had a finding entered into the State nurse aide registry concerning abuse, neglect, mistreatment of residents or misappropriation of their property; and report any knowledge it has of actions by a court of law against an employee, which would indicate unfitness for service as a nurse aide or other facility staff to the State nurse aide registry or licensing authorities.

In April 2006, it was announced that the state Department of Health was investigating the 125-bed Eden Park Health Care Center in Cobleskill, looking into patient care issues. Last March, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services levied a civil penalty of $43,622 against the facility.

During an investigation of the facility in 2007, the state had found that the Cobleskill facility was in “immediate jeopardy” based on a Medicare and Medicaid survey of the home.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there were 11 deficiencies found at the Cobleskill home in 2007, more than twice the average of five for nursing homes statewide. A rating of immediate jeopardy indicates that a facility has deficiencies that have caused or are likely to cause serious harm, injury, impairment or death if not immediately rectified.

Those deficiencies, which included quality-of-care problems and administration issues, have supposedly been corrected. In addition to the state-imposed penalties, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services imposed a civil penalty of $5,050 per day on Eden Park and denied payment for new admissions. Medicare and Medicaid patients in the home weren’t forced to leave but the home didn’t receive payment for new admissions while it remained in “immediate jeopardy”.

The Cobleskill facility has since closed.

In Connecticut last week, the family of a deceased Norwich man filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Haven Healthcare officials, claiming that the misappropriation of nursing homes funds by the facility’s CEO contributed to “deplorable conditions” and that the man died due to nursing home negligence. Haven Healthcare operates the largest chain of nursing homes in the state of Connecticut and recently filed for bankruptcy in the state of Vermont.

The attorney who represents the family of Robert Wininger is also seeking permission to sue the Connecticut state departments of public health and social services, and the state’s long-term care ombudsman for failing to investigate and act on complaints lodged by Wininger’s family prior to his death.

Such may be in future of Eden Park in Glens Falls, particularly in view of the fact that the facility has obtained its certificate of need from the state DOH to operate the facility under a bogus legal entity that is not registered with either the state or county.

In New York State, in the event of the death of a nursing home resident, which occurred as a result of any abuse, negligence, mistreatment or violence on the part of the nursing home and its staff; the survivors and loved one of the deceased can file a case of wrongful death due to nursing home abuse and can claim damages for:

- Emotional anxiety and sorrow due to the death.

- Loss of parental influence and direction.

- Loneliness as a result of loss of companionship.

- Recovery of burial, cremation and other funeral expenses.

While legal claims and damages will not erase or soothe the suffering and grief caused by the untimely and unnecessary death, it will make nursing homes and other such institutions accountable for their actions so that other people are protected from a similar fate.

The National Center On Elder Abuse in the United States, regularly collects data and information about nursing home residents and any instances of nursing home abuse. They scrutinize such data and then publish nursing home abuse statistics regarding abuse of the elderly in nursing homes and other care giving facilities in America.

According to these statistics, more than 30% of all nursing homes in America indulge in some form of resident abuse, with the numbers on an ever increasing trend. As per published statistics, more than 50% of all nursing homes are short staffed and do not have enough staff to help care for the residents. Due to this, the existing staff is often overburdened, which in turn leads to nursing home neglect and also abuse, according to the website of one law firm which specializes in nursing home negligence.

The nursing home abuse statistics have caused much alarm in the minds of Americans who have their loved ones living in nursing homes. The published statistics are already high enough so as to cause concern, but add to that the fact that these statistics do not account for all nursing home abuse cases. The statistics show that only about 20% of nursing home abuse ever gets reported, and thus, the majority of instances do not even figure in nursing home abuse statistics.

Nursing home abuse statistics show that residents of nursing homes are not just abused by the staff at such facilities, but also by other residents and occupants. The statistics reveal that nursing home abuse consists of different forms of abuse such as, physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological distress, malnutrition, financial exploitation, and neglect.

Nursing home abuse has injured and killed many a nursing home occupant and has left several people and families in devastation and bereavement. The nursing home abuse statistics have finally forced people and the authorities to think on what can be done to reduce abuse in nursing homes and make them safer for the elderly. 

According to a recent audit released  by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state Department of Health is late in investigating one out of every five complaints filed against nursing homes,

 

 

Under state law, DOH is required to investigate complaints against nursing homes. Complaints are rated on scale of A-D, with A being the most severe. From April 2005 to September 2006, auditors found that 1,186 of about 6,700 investigations by DOH started late. Auditors found that DOH responded promptly to Priority A complaints when residents were in immediate danger, but failed to act quickly on Priority B complaints.

“When a complaint is made about a nursing home, DOH has to act and act quickly,” DiNapoli said. “The department is doing its part to investigate very serious complaints in a timely manner. But it needs to get to other complaints faster. Failing to respond on time could put elderly and dependent New Yorkers at risk.”

DOH is required to investigate Priority B complaints within 10 days. Of the total number of late investigations, 899 of them were for Priority B complaints. Such complaints entail patient neglect and quality of care issues, which could include: patient accidental injury, inattentiveness to patients with incontinence issues, verbal and mental abuse of residents and complaints concerning drug and medication issues.

Among the report’s findings:

–the bulk of the late Priority B investigations occurred in DOH’s New York City (733) and Central New York offices (121), with staffing deployment and/or staff shortages to blame; of 6,696 cases evaluated, 560 remained open beyond the state-required 180 days, largely because management decided to open newer priority cases (although DOH’s rate of case closure has improved over the past five years);

–by not closing cases on time, DOH has missed opportunities to be reimbursed for investigation expenses in a more timely manner by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;

–case files in the Central New York, New York City and Long Island offices were missing necessary documentation, potentially putting residents’ health and safety at risk; and

–incorrect data was entered into the department’s complaint/investigation logging system.

Comptroller DiNapoli recommended that the DOH:

–re-evaluate staffing needs among its individual offices based on need so investigations can be completed in a more timely manner;

–continue efforts to hire sufficient staff for the Central New York office;

–improve the timeliness of investigations after analyzing case loads, staff deployment and best practices;

–ensure that supervisors in the Long island, New York City and Central New York offices sign off only on cases that have complete documentation on file; and

retrain staff members on the department’s complaint logging system.

DOH officials blamed much of the late response on staff shortages and growing caseloads – a burden shared by similar agencies across the country. The full response from DOH is included in the audit.

Click here for a copy of the audit. 2-23-08