Two WNY nursing homes get $10,000 state fines

Two Western New York nursing homes were recently hit with $10,000 penalties by the state Health Department over quality of care issues.

The fines, against GreenField Health & Rehabilitation Center and Seneca Health Care Center, were disclosed in the latest batch of data posted online by the state early this month.

So far this year, the Health Department has issued 50 fines to nursing homes across the state, totaling $329,700, over quality of care problems, infection control issues and other deficiencies.

Of those, five have come in Western New York, costing those nursing homes a total of $26,000.

The $10,000 fines levied against GreenField Health and Seneca Health Care Center are noteworthy by state standards. Under state law, nursing homes can be fined up to $2,000 per citation, a fine that can be increased up to $10,000 if the violation directly results in serious physical harm.

Multiple violations can lead to even larger fines. For example, the largest fine so far this year – $36,000 – went to a Suffolk County nursing home.

Patients sit outside of the Greenfield Health & Rehabilitation Center that was recently hit with a $10,000 fine from the New York State Health Department for staff failing to perform CPR on a resident.

GreenField fine

GreenField Health & Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home on Broadway in Lancaster that is affiliated with the nonprofit Niagara Lutheran Health System, was issued the $10,000 fine on April 4, according to state records.

The fine stems from a state inspection Jan. 3, which found the facility failed to perform CPR on a resident whose advanced directives classified them as full code, a status that means all resuscitation procedures will be provided to keep that person alive if their heart or breathing stops.

At 2:45 a.m. on an undisclosed date, that resident "had a change of condition" and was experiencing respiratory distress, according to state records. Upon that change, a licensed practical nurse team leader correctly identified the resident as a full code, notifying the LPN supervisor.

That LPN supervisor then relayed the resident's change of condition to a registered nurse supervisor, who "incorrectly identified" the resident's chart and informed the two licensed practical nurses that the resident had "do not resuscitate/do not intubate/comfort measure orders," according to the state's inspection.

From there, a doctor was notified of the incorrect code status, and facility staff "failed to check other identifiers for advanced directives such as resident's identification band and door name tag," the state found in its inspection.

The resident died at 5:10 a.m.

State records show GreenField's plan of correction was approved Jan. 30, and the state marked the citation corrected Feb. 2.

In a statement, Niagara Lutheran President and CEO Christopher Koenig said the nurse who made the error was immediately removed and subsequently fired.

"The facility did have in place numerous procedures to prevent errors such as this, and the nurse who made the error did not follow protocol," he said. "The management team immediately reviewed the case with all staff to make sure no other errors would occur. This error by the nurse was reported by us to the state, and the facility followed all appropriate policies and procedures. Even though procedure was not followed by the nurse, the state chose to assign a fine to the facility regardless."

GreenField has an overall rating of one star, or much below average, on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website.

CMS records show GreenField was hit with a $22,340 federal fine tied to the inspection Jan. 3.

Seneca Health fine

Seneca Health Care Center, a nursing home on Seneca Street in West Seneca that is part of the for-profit McGuire Group, was fined $10,000 on April 5, following a Jan. 12 state inspection.

According to the stipulation from the state, the facility "failed to ensure that each resident received adequate supervision to prevent accidents."

A resident who required one-on-one observation for safety had an unwitnessed fall in their room, sustaining a right femur fracture that required hospitalization and surgery, according to the document.

"The incident you're referencing involved a variance in a plan of care," McGuire Group spokesperson Dawn M. Harsch said in an email. "Our facility filed a dispute and submitted a plan of correction, which was accepted. The individual that's referenced continues to reside at our facility under the capable care of our clinical team."

CMS records show Seneca Health also received a $7,901 federal fine related to the Jan. 12 inspection.

Seneca Health is rated as a five-star facility by CMS, which means much above average. It has had no other state fines over the last decade, records show.

Other WNY fines

Three Western New York nursing homes have been hit with fines of $2,000 each this year.

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I'm a Genesee County native and Syracuse University grad who covered business at the (Binghamton) Press & Sun-Bulletin and at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I joined The Buffalo News in September 2021, covering the business of health care.

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