#Sick NY nursing home residents reportedly sent to die at hospitals amid pandemic

Dying residents of a New York nursing home were reportedly dumped at local hospitals amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report — raising even more questions about the Cuomo administration’s handling of such homes during the crisis.

Over five weeks during the pandemic, a nurse with the Columbia County Health Department counted 18 hospital deaths of residents at the Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell in the town of Valatie, ProPublica reported Tuesday.

The nurse, who was not identified, explained that all the residents had arrived at the hospital with orders saying no extraordinary measures were to be taken to keep them alive, leading health officials to make a troubling deduction.

“For me,” Columbia County Department of Health Director Jack Mabb told ProPublica, “it appeared they were sending people to the hospital so they wouldn’t die in the facility.”

Mabb suggested that the Cuomo administration’s decision in early May to stop counting nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 in hospitals as nursing home deaths could have been a reason behind the transferring of the dying residents.

The Cuomo administration has insisted the move was not meant to stifle the rising numbers of deaths at nursing homes.

To date, more than 6,400 New York seniors died of COVID-19 in nursing homes and long-term-care facilities across the Empire State.

And Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Health Department’s controversial March 25 mandate barring the facilities from turning away coronavirus-positive patients may have fueled that number, though Cuomo has repeatedly defended the state order.

State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker was questioned by lawmakers during a legislative hearing Wednesday about the state’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, but dodged questions.

“I’m really here to talk about the hospitals and focus on the hospitals’ challenges…this is the issue that I addressed a week and a half ago, I think we’ve litigated the issue,” he protested.

Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) asked Zucker if his agency was investigating any suspect transfers of nursing home patients to hospitals — referring to the ProPublica report.

“Is the Department of Health investigating any transfers of COVID patients between hospitals and other healthcare facilities and vice versa, from March 25 till now that could have led to mistreatments and misdiagnosis of these patients or to spread COVID to others?” Kim asked to which Zucker replied, “Let me answer by saying we are in the middle of a pandemic.”

Zucker added, “We are in the middle of this, we are still managing it.”

Kim bit back, “If we are in the middle of this pandemic, why did the governor take a victory lap, bragging?”

Mabb told ProPublica that his department’s nurse had sent reports about the deaths of Barnwell residents at local hospitals to the state, and that he asked for a probe into the matter.

“There are very few legitimate reasons for a nursing home to send seriously ill residents with do-not-resuscitate orders to a hospital unless there is a real chance that their conditions could be improved,” Mabb explained. “We flagged it for the state. We told the Department of Health we thought something big was going on.”

Mabb said the state Health Department, which regulates nursing homes, has yet to say if it is investigating the matter.

Bruce Gendron, a vice president of the company that operates the Barnwell nursing home, denied Mabb’s suggestions that the nursing home intentionally sent the residents to local hospitals to die, according to ProPublica.

Gendron initially told the news outlet that the allegations of dumping dying residents at hospitals had been investigated by the state Health Department and were found to be unsubstantiated.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Health said in a statement to The Post Wednesday, “We take every allegation extremely seriously and while no complaint was never lodged to DOH we opened an investigation as soon as we were made aware of it and will hold accountable to the fullest extent of the law any nursing home that engaged in wrongdoing.”

Last week, Zucker was grilled again by lawmakers on the state’s widely scrutinized policy compelling nursing homes to take on coronavirus-positive seniors at the height of the pandemic.

State Senate Investigations Committee Chair James Skoufis pressed Zucker on how many of New York’s nursing home residents died in hospitals – a number that remains unclear.

Zucker refused to be pinned down on a hard number, citing a “need to be sure it’s absolutely accurate.”

“You don’t have a ballpark that you can give? So the total official number is about 6,500. Are we talking with the hospital deaths: 8,000? 10,000? 15,000? What are we looking at?” Skoufis asked.

A rep for Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell said he was not at liberty to comment when reached by The Post Wednesday.