On a day when the Menlo Park State Veterans Home faced possible federal financial sanctions, Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday deployed a “critical team” to help address infection control and management challenges amid the ongoing COVID outbreak.
The move comes in response to an inspection over the summer that found the 328-bed nursing home had put its residents and staff at “imminent risk” of both life-threatening illness and possible abuse during an eight-day visit in August. and September.
It’s unclear whether Murphy’s actions will satisfy the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which set a Tuesday deadline to fix the problems if it could stop paying for new appointments.
A CMS spokesman said late Tuesday that the Menlo Park home had not yet fixed the problems cited during the inspection, but did not say it would withhold funds for new admissions, as it had threatened to do.
The Menlo Park home “is currently substantially out of compliance, and CMS is currently reviewing the results of the most recent survey,” said Mark Breger, a spokesman for the federal agency.
That decisive step could come as soon as March 8 with a complete shutdown of federal funds, Breger said. This would effectively close the facility, as federal reimbursement is the largest source of revenue. It is one of three homes for veterans and their spouses operated by the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMAVA).
More than 200 residents have died at the two hardest-hit veterans homes, in Menlo Park and Paramus, during the pandemic, 158 from confirmed COVID and another 47 presumed to have died from COVID. As of Nov. 15, the Menlo Park home had an active outbreak for the year, with 10 residents in isolation for COVID and two hospitalized, according to a notice to residents’ families.
Two members of the three-man team announced by the governor were already on site Tuesday, and a third is expected to arrive next week. They include an administrator, a nurse and an infection prevention specialist, and they must remain at the Edison site for at least a month, the governor’s office said. They were requested by Brig. Gen. Lisa Howe, who heads the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
On Tuesday, Murphy said the inspection made it clear that “our work is not done.”
“We must and will hold public facilities to the same standards as private long-term care facilities,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Joseph Vitale Jr. said he and four other Democratic senators will meet with the governor and key commissioners next week to propose removing nursing home operations from DMAVA and creating a separate cabinet-level department for veterans. . services.
Vitale, D-Woodbridge, who chairs the Senate Health Care Committee, said the strike group is “absolutely necessary” and will show federal regulators that the state is working to fix the problems.
“This underscores the need for institutional reforms that we want to make so that the state can provide the same level of care and oversight on a consistent basis that the strike group does,” Vital said.
On Tuesday, Republicans renewed their long-standing call for legislative hearings on the high death toll at home and the ongoing challenges of controlling the infection.
Sixteen GOP senators sent a letter to Senate President Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat, asking him to create a special committee with subpoena power to “investigate the ongoing failures at state veterans’ homes.”
The head of a Paramus veterans’ home who served as a whistleblower during the COVID-19 pandemic has offered to testify if Republicans succeed. Last week, he identified himself and offered NorthJersey.com his own post-mortem on the high rate of COVID-related deaths at the Paramus facility.
“I fully support your efforts,” wrote Dave Ofshinsky, a former business manager and assistant general manager, to the state Senate Republican’s office. “More than two years when nothing was done is too long; this is what prompted me to speak out now. Please note that I am willing to speak to any committee that reviews DMAVA and veterans homes.”
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The Senate and Assembly are controlled by Democrats, who have resisted calls for hearings for more than two years. Republicans say Democrats are trying to protect Murphy from embarrassment. Democrats said the Republicans’ request was a political stunt.
“The simple fact is that the Legislature has done virtually nothing to improve protections for residents of veterans’ homes, and it has not worked,” the GOP letter said.
A spokesman for Scutari did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, one prominent Democrat — U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of Paterson — called for his party to hold hearings “to get to the bottom of this rot.”
Pascrell’s late brother-in-law lived in the Paramus home during the height of the pandemic.
