Feds, state agree to vets home reforms after COVID deaths
By: Scott Fallon
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The Department of Justice and Governor Phil Murphy's administration have agreed to a series of reforms at the state-run veterans homes after federal officials criticized management's response to COVID-19, which led to more than 200 residents dying at the Paramus and Menlo Park facilities at the height of the pandemic.
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The agreement requires the state to meet "specific standards of clinical care, to overhaul its infection control and emergency operations practices and to implement measures for improved leadership and accountability," Philip Selliger, the U.S. Attorney for New Jerry, announced Wednesday. [10/02/2024]
..... An independent monitor will also be appointed to make suer the reforms are carried out - a move that appears to have been in the works for awhile. Murphy and some legislators said last year [2023] they were in support of a federal monitor.
..... The consent decree, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge, is the latest in a series of reforms following one of the biggest death tolls during the pandemic.
..... A Justice Department investigation released last year [2023] corroborated many of systemic failures and poor decisions at the homes that NorthJersey.com had reported since the pandemic's onset.
..... Lack of preparation, poor infection control practices, distrust between managers and staff, poor communication and policies against mask-wearing helped the virus spread out of control among the elderly residents and staff.
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The federal report went a step further and said the homes continued to provide "deficient basic medical care" last year, [2023] such as preventing alls and treating wounds properly.
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The agreement combined with oversight will help ensure that care is adequate, said Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
..... "Our veterans deserve to receive appropriate care, as required by law, and their families deserve to have confidence that their love ones' needs will be met," she said in a statement.
..... Murphy said he welcomed the oversight and hoped the agreement would hasten needed reforms.
..... "With this consent decree, we can resolve past differences with the Department of Justice and focus our efforts on providing the best possible care to our veterans homes residents." he said in a statement.
..... The investigation found that the Murphy administration violated the resident' 14th Amendment right to conditions of reasonable care and safety when they are housed at a state facility.
..... Six months after the pandemic began, Murphy fired four top DMAVA officials, including the commissioner and the CEOs of both homes. In 2022, the Murphy administration agreed to pay $53 million to the families of 119 veterans who died in the homes.
.... Other reforms include moving oversight of the homes away form the military an agency that deals more often with health care. Plans also call to convent all the rooms tat the homes to single occupancy.
..... Among the many questionable practices that occurred at the homes was that residents who tested positive continue to share rooms with those who were negative almost tow months into the pandemic, even though dozens had already died.