Cypress Garden Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation received 20 citations for violations of public health laws between 2015 and 2019, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on December 12, 2019. The Flushing nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of five inspections by state authorities. The violations they describe include the following:
1. The nursing home did not provide adequate supervision or assistive devices to prevent residents from falling. Section 483.25 of the Federal Code requires nursing homes to ensure that resident environments remain “as free of accident hazards as is possible” and to provide residents with “adequate supervision and assistance devices to prevent accidents.” An October 2016 citation found that Cypress Gardens did not ensure that a resident who had been identified as “High Risk” for falls received adequate supervision to prevent them. An inspector specifically found that in June 2016 the resident was observed on the floor after a fall, having “sustained abrasions to the forehead and left forearm.” According to the citation, the resident’s care plan interventions for falls included a chair alarm, but at the time he “did not have a bed or chair alarm in pace.” The citation found that this deficiency had the “potential to cause more than minimal harm.”
2. The nursing home did not implement proper measures to prevent and control infection. Section 483.80 of the Federal Code requires nursing homes to maintain and implement “an infection prevention and control program designed to provide a safe, sanitary and comfortable environment and to help prevent the development and transmission of communicable diseases and infections.” A September 2019 citation found that the nursing home failed to provide such in an instance when an eye doctor consulting at the facility “did not properly clean the overbed table used or perform hand hygiene prior to completing an eye exam.” An inspector observed the eye doctor wiping off an exam table with a paper towel and then placing his equipment bag on it while there were still “stains” on the table; the doctor then moved the table into a resident’s room, according to the citation, and performed an eye exam on the resident without performing hand hygiene beforehand, although he was observed performing hand hygiene afterward.
3. The nursing home did not keep its residents’ drug regimens free from unnecessary psychotropic medications. Section 483.45 of the Federal Code requires nursing homes to maintain resident drug regimens without any unnecessary use of medications that have an effect on “brain activities associated with mental processes and behavior,” unless those medications are required to treat a specific condition. A September 2019 citation found that Cypress Gardens did not adequately protect residents from unnecessary psychotropic medications in an instance in which a resident “with wandering and elopement risk behaviors” was prescribed a certain psychotropic medication even though the resident was not appropriately diagnosed. The citation also states that the nursing home did not, before prescribing the medication, make any effort to use “non-pharmacological interventions” to address possible “psychosocial stressors” that may have caused the behavior resulting in the prescription.
The attorneys at the Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC work diligently to protect the rights of nursing home residents. Please contact us to discuss in the event you have a potential case involving neglect or abuse.
