A New Jersey nursing home is barred from accepting new admissions and is at risk of losing its state license following allegations of understaffing and resident abuse and neglect, NBC News reported.

Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center was fined $220,235 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in November 2020 after inspectors discovered 17 bodies in a morgue meant to hold four residents. The facility was known as Andover Rehabilitation and Subacute Care Facility I and II until November 2021.

The provider was accused last summer of causing residents’ COVID-19 deaths. The company argued, however, that it was simply complying with federal regulations in response to the pandemic, according to filings.

Notification of allegations

The nursing home was given 72 hours’ notice last Thursday to respond to a state Department of Health report and address allegations of shortcomings or it could lose its license. The facility has responded, and the health department is reviewing that response, Donna Leusner, director of communications at the health department, told the McKnight’s Business Daily.

“The enforcement letter from the department states that the facility’s license will be summarily suspended if certain actions are not taken to correct immediate violations that threaten the health and safety of the residents. CMS has also issued a 23-day termination notice that outlines actions necessary to prevent termination of the facility’s participation in Medicare and Medicaid,” Leusner said.

Allegations

In a Feb. 10 letter to the nursing home’s administrator, Menachem Spiegel of the state health department stated that staff members from the department’s Health Facility and Field Operations were onsite Jan. 3 through Feb. 2.

Among some of the allegations, the state inspectors noted:

  • The nursing home did not investigate a phlebotomist’s verbal abuse of a resident, which had been witnessed by facility staff members. No one notified the health department of the incident.
  • A certified nursing assistant neglected a resident, leaving the resident soiled in feces for 10 hours.
  • Another resident complained that a suprapubic catheter was caught in a motorized wheelchair and was causing physical pain, but the “resident’s pleas for help were ignored” by staff members “for over 40 minutes.”
  • At one point, the facility was functioning with 23 CNAs when regulations required 58.

Further, according to the health department, staff members failed to perform CPR or call 911 when two residents who were found unresponsive, one of whom was 55 years old. Both residents died.

The health department stated that it intends to use a management consulting firm to see that the deficiencies are corrected. If they are not corrected, the the nursing home could lose its license.
A Woodland representative told the McKnight’s Business Daily that the facility has no comment.