New York’s Covid nursing home deaths ‘undercounted’ by 50 per cent, report finds

Nursing home residents make a line for the coronavirus vaccine at Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a nursing home facility

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New York may have undercounted Covid-19 deaths of nursing home residents by as much as 56 per cent, according to a new report from the state’s attorney general.

Letitia James examined the discrepancies between the number of deaths being reported by the state’s Department of Health — which it put at 8,500 — and the number of deaths reported by the homes themselves.

The attorney general’s investigators looked at a sample of 62 of New York’s roughly 600 nursing homes. They reported 1,914 deaths of residents from Covid-19, while the Department of Health logged only 1,229 deaths at those same facilities.

If that same pattern exists statewide, it would mean officials have underreported deaths by nearly 56 per cent.

Governor Andrew Cuomo holds daily briefings on the coronavirus outbreak in New York

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Part of the gap is explained by a decision by New York’s health agency to exclude from its count the number of nursing home patients who die after being transferred to hospitals. Hospital and nursing home officials say the state has ready access to that figure.

On March 25, the state’s Health Department issued an advisory requiring nursing homes to accept "the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals" if the patients were deemed medically stable.

Mr Cuomo issued an executive order changing the advisory on May 10 by requiring hospitals to be sure patients tested negative before discharging them to nursing homes.

Mr Cuomo, who has been praised for his handling of the virus and broke on a book on the subject despite the state having the highest death toll in the US, has come under criticism for the decision, which is being investigated by the Department of Justice.

There was debate around how, and if, this advisory contributed to the significant coronavirus death toll seen throughout New York nursing homes.

Ms James said her review found that a lack of infection controls at nursing homes also put residents at increased risk of harm, while nursing homes that had lower federal scores for staffing had higher coronavirus fatality rates.

"As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate," said Attorney General James. 

"While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents."