How to Report Nursing Home Neglect and Elder Abuse in New York
Reporting New York nursing home abuse, neglect, or negligence is critical in stopping it from occurring again. If you suspect neglect, stand up for New York’s most vulnerable and report your suspicions immediately.
If you or someone you love is considering making the transition to living in an elder care facility, one of the given facts that you may take for granted is that the nurses and staff will provide sufficient care. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for people living in New York nursing homes and elder care locations to suffer abuse—whether intentional or otherwise—at the hands of staff and nurses. Often, this results from overworked, tired, and understaffed employees who cannot spare enough time to properly care for individual patients’ needs.
Common nursing home neglect and abuse injuries include bed sores, falls and wrongful death.
If you suspect that someone you love is a victim of nursing home abuse or elder neglect in New York, you may not know what to do next. Perhaps you’ve already spoken with the staff but are worried that they are not making any changes to the way they treat your family member and other residents. Thankfully, New York provides a number of options for reporting long-term care facility abuse.
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Reporting Elder Abuse in New York
In the United States, each state is required to have an Ombudsman Program that advocates for good quality of care in nursing homes and other facilities with aging patients. This program, administered by the Administration on Aging, is a good place to start if you’d like to report elder abuse. You can contact the Ombudsman Program in New York at 1-855-582-6769 or by email at ombudsman@aging.ny.gov.
In addition to the Ombudsman Program, the New York State Division of Quality and Surveillance for Nursing Homes and Intermediate Care Facilities (DQS) is responsible for investigating claims of elder abuse in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. You can file a report by fax (518-408-1157) or by mail to Centralized Complaint Intake Unit, 161 Delaware Avenue, Delmar, New York 12054. You can also call the NYS Department of Health’s Nursing Home Complaint Hotline at 1-888-201-4563.
If you are considering whether you might have a legal case against a New York nursing home due to the way that it has handled the treatment of your loved one, we are always ready to help. With offices in New York City and Rochester, Senior Justice Law Firm is here to help your family get answers.
How Do I Report Nursing Home Abuse in New York City?
New York City is the most densely populated metropolitan area in the entire United States. It stands to reason, then, that a large population of those who grow old in New York State do it in NYC. In fact, the city’s elderly population has been booming, seeing a 26% increase over the last ten years and showing no signs of slowing down. As of 2019, 3.2 million people in New York are over the age of 65—that number is greater than the entire population of 21 other states. That’s nearly 1 in 6 people in New York who are over 65.
The hundreds of thousands of older residents in New York who are living in nursing homes are spread among 594 elder care facilities in the metro area, including Long Island and Westchester County. Unfortunately, only 48 of these received a positive score in their review, with the average rating of a New York City nursing home being around a 3. A large number of homes—even those ranked higher than average—still report staffing shortages and lack of patient care in critical areas like nutrition, so it is important to keep an eye on your loved one even if he or she lives in one of New York’s best nursing homes.
If you suspect that your loved one is suffering from elder abuse or neglect in a nursing home in New York City, you have a wide variety of resources at your disposal thanks to the vast spread of the metro area. One of the best places to start is with the New York Federation for Eldercare, who can point you to both national and local resources specific to your area and situation. A starting list to get you going can be found at http://www.nyfe.org/resources/#.
The Center for Independence of the Disabled, NY (CIDNY) is available to field reports of elder abuse and nursing home neglect in NYC. CIDNY’s Manhattan office can help families in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. The Queens office serves Brooklyn and Queens. To report suspected or confirmed nursing home abuse, call 212-812-2901 (Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island) or 212-812-2911 (Brooklyn and Queens).
Let our New York City Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys assist you in exposing Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect.
How Do I Report Nursing Home Abuse in Buffalo?
New York state is home to more than 600 nursing homes, accounting for just around 116,000 individual beds for residents. That is a lot of people to manage—and a major opportunity for things to go wrong. In Buffalo alone, 46 nursing homes are located within the metro area, and most provide more than 100 beds per facility—a recipe for spreading staff thin across a huge number of patients. The city’s metro area is home to more than 1 million people, and as many as 35% of the population of Buffalo city proper is over the age of 65.
An uncomfortably large number of long-term care facilities in Buffalo are receiving scores as low as 1 out of 5 in key care areas like nutrition, hydration, and staffing; in fact, only 5 of the city’s 46 nursing homes received a positive score during review. In fact, the executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a non-profit working to improve life outcomes of the elderly community, noted that “16 of the worst nursing homes in the country are located… in Western New York.”
Of these 16, four are located within Buffalo itself:
- Safire Rehabilitation of Southtown LLC, Buffalo
- Ellicott Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, Buffalo
- Buffalo Community Healthcare Center, Buffalo
- Buffalo Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, Buffalo
If you need to report elder abuse in Buffalo, you can file a Nursing Home complaint form at https://apps.health.ny.gov/surveyd8/nursing-home-complaint-form. In addition to the online complain form for Buffalo, you can direct complaints to the Ombudsman for your region (Region 15) at People Inc. Their main office is located at 2747 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Buffalo, NY 14214. If you prefer to reach out by phone, they can be contacted at 716-817-9222 or 1-844-527-5509. Lisa Newman, the Ombudsman coordinator for People Inc. in Buffalo, receives emails directly at lnewman@people-inc.org.
Let our Buffalo Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys assist you in exposing Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect.
How Do I Report Elder Abuse in Rochester?
Rochester, New York is home to more than 200,000 people, though the metro area of Rochester spans more than a million residents across six counties (Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Wayne, and Yates). In recent years, AARP and the Center for an Urban Future conducted a study revealing that the population of older adults residing in Rochester has surged by upwards of 36%, making Rochester a popular place for the elderly and bringing the city 8 percentage points higher than any other location in the state when it comes to over-65s.
Despite this increase in the older population segment, only 51 nursing homes are available in the Rochester area—and on average, 96% of their beds are full. Unfortunately, only four of these 51 facilities received a positive score when reviewed, and even these four were not immune from fines and violations in areas of staffing numbers, nutrition, and one-on-one patient care. Like many cities across a number of states, nursing homes in Rochester tend to rank better when they have fewer beds per facility, with some of the highest ranking containing room for only 26 residents. Whether your loved one is in a highly rated nursing home or a standard for-profit elder care facility, if you suspect that he or she has been a victim of abuse or neglect, it is important to reach out to both state-wide and local resources.
You can begin by calling the New York State Division of Quality and Surveillance for Nursing Homes and Intermediate Care Facilities (DQS) to report nursing home abuse in the major cities of New York, you can also contact the Nursing Home Complaint hotline (1-888-201-4563) at any time. While it is only staffed during the day, you may leave a voicemail to receive a return call.
Rochester is also home to a local assistance resource as part of the Monroe County Long Term Care Ombudsman Program. Lifespan, the main headquarters of this division, works with families whose loved ones are in long-term care facilities located in Monroe, Ontario, Genesee, Yates, Wyoming, Seneca, Wayne and Livingston counties, so even those on the edge of the Rochester metro area can find help here. Mail can be sent directly to Lifespan at 1900 South Clinton Avenue, Monroe, Rochester, NY, 14618, or you can reach out via phone at (585) 244-8400 (extension 114) for Monroe County or (800) 454-5030 for the other counties within the Rochester metropolitan area. You can also read more about your local Ombudsman program and what they can do to help you report elder abuse and nursing home neglect in Rochester via the local online brochure, which can be found here.
Let our Rochester Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys assist you in exposing Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect.
Monitoring Care to Prevent Nursing Home Abuse in New York
In New York, all facilities that are responsible for the care of the older population, including nursing homes and elder care locations, must submit to oversight by the New York Department of Health. Facilities are inspected regularly—and without warning—to ensure compliance with requirements for appropriate patient care. Failure to correctly care for patients can result in a fine of $5,000 and a misdemeanor charge.
Reporting Abuse in Long-Term Care in New York
If you possess evidence or even simply suspect that your family member is suffering abuse at a nursing home, you may be sad, upset, and even frustrated. Many people often wonder what the point is in going after a nursing home with a legal case—because receiving money does not fix the pain and neglect that the family member went through.
However, most long-term care facilities in New York are run by for-profit entities, and hitting them in their pocketbook is the best way to effect change. Forcing them to pay damages and fines holds them accountable for their elder abuse negligence and can spare other residents from being treated the same way that your loved one was.
Reach Out to Senior Justice Law Firm for Elder Abuse and Neglect Lawyers in New York
Stopping nursing home negligence is everyone’s job. As a society, we must expose neglectful conditions, even if the poor care did not result in serious injury.
A small administrative nursing home fine (maybe $5,000) for allowing a resident to suffer can be disheartening. This is why it is important to work with a lawyer experienced in nursing home abuse in New York in order to go after pain and suffering damages as well. In order to stop the factors that caused the abuse, the facility must be forced to change their practices through harsh penalties like monetary damages.
Senior Justice Law Firm is a law firm narrowly focused on nursing home neglect and elder abuse. This is the only thing we do. Reach out at 888-375-9998 for a free consultation to discuss the specifics of your situation and where to go next. We can inform you on the type of case you may have and create a strategy to move forward.
