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Five Nursing Home Nurses Hide Patient Abuse in NY

Wed, 11/15/2000 - 1:00am — Karen Stevenson
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Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced that five registered nurses holding high managerial positions at the Townhouse Extended Care Center in Uniondale have been charged with covering up acts of patient abuse at the facility by tampering with evidence and falsifying documents to deceive state investigators looking into the allegations. The focus of the state probes was a patient who died after being fed through an enema bag, and two other patients who sustained serious injuries in falls.

The defendants have been charged in a 21-count indictment with Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, and Tampering with Physical Evidence. Spitzer noted that the possibility of bringing patient abuse charges was precluded by the statute of limitations.

This case was the first to result from Attorney General Spitzer?s statewide nursing home initiative in which he directed each Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) regional office to target a nursing home for quality of care issues.

On the morning of April 5, 1997, a 97-year-old female patient died after Townhouse staff used an enema bag instead of a feeding bag to administer nourishment directly into the woman?s stomach. (A feeding bag is equipped with a regulator and pump, thereby allowing staff to control the flow of the liquid nourishment. An enema bag contains a clamp that allows only two positions ? open and closed.) Using the proper equipment, the feeding was supposed to take ten hours. However, as a result of using an enema bag, the entire feeding supplement was delivered in an hour or less. As a result, the patient experienced numerous episodes of vomiting and diarrhea throughout the night before dying.

When the State Department of Health (DOH) commenced an investigation into the patient?s death, Brown and Colon, in their capacity as Director and Assistant Director of Nursing, respectively, allegedly tried to cover up the facts and circumstances surrounding the patient?s death. They did so by directing staff, who had attended to the patient, to rewrite their nursing notes and written statements to falsely indicate that the proper equipment had been used. Brown then submitted these false statements to DOH.

As part of the cover-up, it is further alleged that Dwyer, who had been the R.N. supervisor on duty at the time, and who had ordered the enema bag to be used because no feed bags were available, falsely indicated in a written statement that there was no problem with the patient during her shift, and that nothing unusual was reported to her regarding the patient. In fact, Dwyer had repeatedly ignored requests by the staff to check on the patient once they realized she was in distress.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced that five registered nurses holding high managerial positions at the Townhouse Extended Care Center in Uniondale have been charged with covering up acts of patient abuse at the facility by tampering with evidence and falsifying documents to deceive state investigators looking into the allegations. The focus of the state probes was a patient who died after being fed through an enema bag, and two other patients who sustained serious injuries in falls.

The defendants have been charged in a 21-count indictment with Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, and Tampering with Physical Evidence. Spitzer noted that the possibility of bringing patient abuse charges was precluded by the statute of limitations.

This case was the first to result from Attorney General Spitzer?s statewide nursing home initiative in which he directed each Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) regional office to target a nursing home for quality of care issues.

On the morning of April 5, 1997, a 97-year-old female patient died after Townhouse staff used an enema bag instead of a feeding bag to administer nourishment directly into the woman?s stomach. (A feeding bag is equipped with a regulator and pump, thereby allowing staff to control the flow of the liquid nourishment. An enema bag contains a clamp that allows only two positions ? open and closed.) Using the proper equipment, the feeding was supposed to take ten hours. However, as a result of using an enema bag, the entire feeding supplement was delivered in an hour or less. As a result, the patient experienced numerous episodes of vomiting and diarrhea throughout the night before dying.

When the State Department of Health (DOH) commenced an investigation into the patient?s death, Brown and Colon, in their capacity as Director and Assistant Director of Nursing, respectively, allegedly tried to cover up the facts and circumstances surrounding the patient?s death. They did so by directing staff, who had attended to the patient, to rewrite their nursing notes and written statements to falsely indicate that the proper equipment had been used. Brown then submitted these false statements to DOH.

As part of the cover-up, it is further alleged that Dwyer, who had been the R.N. supervisor on duty at the time, and who had ordered the enema bag to be used because no feed bags were available, falsely indicated in a written statement that there was no problem with the patient during her shift, and that nothing unusual was reported to her regarding the patient. In fact, Dwyer had repeatedly ignored requests by the staff to check on the patient once they realized she was in distress.