About 200 residents of state-run veterans homes in Paramus (pictured) and Menlo Park died in the pandemic's early weeks, a death toll investigators have blamed on mismanagement. (Courtesy of the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs)
A year after federal investigators blasted two state-run veterans homes for medical care so deficient they deemed it unconstitutional, federal authorities filed a complaint against New Jersey Wednesday to compel reforms, saying the state has done too little to correct persisting, life-threatening problems.
The feds want state officials to overhaul operations at New Jersey Veterans Memorial Homes at Menlo Park and Paramus and submit to independent monitoring to ensure compliance, according to a civil complaint signed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. More than 150 veterans who need 24-hour skilled nursing care live at each home, according to the complaint.
State and federal officials have agreed on a proposed consent decree that also was filed Wednesday. It now awaits a federal judge’s sign-off, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said.
The proposed settlement comes almost 13 months after federal authorities found persisting problems with the infection control practices and medical care at the homes, where about 200 residents died because of early-pandemic blunders by staff.
Sellinger said the consent decree offers “a detailed roadmap” for reforms.
“This consent decree will address the unconstitutional conditions at the veterans homes detailed in the complaint we filed today, including the poor infection-control practices and deficient clinical care,” Sellinger said. “These conditions were compounded by a lack of effective management and oversight. Such deficiencies exposed residents to uncontrolled serious and deadly infections and resulted in the veterans homes suffering among the highest number of resident deaths of all similarly sized facilities in the region.”
The complaint focuses on infection-control lapses relating to testing, contact tracing, isolation, monitoring, hand hygiene, and surface disinfection, as well as failures to provide wound care, administer medications, prevent falls, monitor residents for acute changes in condition, and ensure staff competency.
“Defendant has not taken corrective action sufficient to correct the longstanding Deficiencies,” the complaint notes.
The proposed consent decree, which state and federal officials filed jointly, requires the state to meet specific standards of clinical care, overhaul its infection control and emergency operations practices, and improve leadership and accountability.
Much of that document lays out goals that seem like the bare basics, like instructing nurses to “attend to and treat the Residents’ pain in a timely manner, communicating with the primary care physician or on-call provider as needed” and “(ensure) that Residents receive their medications and treatments as prescribed, including but not limited to receiving the correct dosage within the correct time frame.”
The homes, along with a third veterans home in Vineland, are operated by the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
Col. Yvonne Mays, the department’s acting commissioner, said in a statement from the governor’s office that the settlement comes after months of talks and inspections.
“The veterans homes at Menlo Park and Paramus have made significant progress confirmed by repeated, independent inspections conducted by the New Jersey Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,” Mays said. “We look forward to continuing our important work and we welcome this partnership with a federal monitor.”
Gov. Phil Murphy seconded that sentiment.
“With this consent decree, we can resolve past differences with the Department of Justice and focus our efforts on providing the best possible care to our Veterans Homes residents,” Murphy said. “I’m proud of the progress we have made and remain determined to not only meet federal standards but to exceed them.”
All three homes passed surprise inspections of their infection-control practices in June and September, according to the state. Since the deficient care was exposed, all three homes now have full-time advocates for residents, new electronic medical records systems, new training and continuing education, and higher wages for health care staff to improve recruitment and retention, according to the state.
Sellinger’s office, along with the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division, began investigating the homes in October 2020 under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, which is intended to protect people in the custody of state or local governments.
In a separate investigation, the State Commission of Investigation also ripped the homes’ pandemic response. The state paid almost $70 million to settle lawsuits filed by relatives of veterans who died in the homes during the pandemic’s earliest months.
“Our veterans deserve to receive appropriate care, as required by law, and their families deserve to have confidence that their loved ones’ needs will be met,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This agreement requires the state to deliver that care and have the oversight in place to provide families that confidence. The Justice Department will work diligently with the state to ensure the reforms are properly implemented.”
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Local News
