The state can penalize homes by imposing fines, cutting off Medicaid and Medicare payments and, in the most abysmal cases, shutting them down, as one was in 2000. There were no statistics on how many are given the state's other ratings. Under pressure from the federal government, the state stepped up inspections of homes last year, more than doubling from the previous year the number cited for putting residents in immediate jeopardy. The state has finally begun to identify problems we have seen for years,'' said Cynthia Rudder, director of the Nursing Home Community Coalition of New York. Officials of all three homes said they had rectified the problems cited by the state.
All local homes are now in compliance with state and federal regulations.
State officials said the home did not have clear guidelines as to when to resuscitate. Floyd Long, the home's administrator, declined to discuss the case, which was voluntarily reported to the state. But he said the home had implemented a new procedure, approved by the state, to identify which patients wished to be resuscitated. It is now in compliance. Long, the home's administrator, said, beginning in 1999, the home had many personnel changes, including its director of nursing.