The King David nursing home is run by the controversial Allure Group
Four lawmakers are accusing a Brooklyn nursing home operator
tied to a real estate scandal that rocked the de Blasio administration of
stonewalling constituents who have family members residing in the facility
during the coronavirus pandemic.
The ire is being directed at the King David nursing home in
Gravesend, which is run by the controversial Allure Group.
“We are writing to you with great concern over the reports
of poor care at your facility and the total lack of a response from anyone in
your facility,” said the letter to King David Administrator David Schoenblum,
which was signed by Rep. Max Rose, state Sen. Diane Savino and City Council
members Mark Treyger and James Brannan.
“Our office has been inundated with calls from distraught
constituents who have loved ones at your facility. We have heard reports that
your facility has left deceased residents in their bed, transferred patients to
hospitals without notifying their families, and failed to report the number of
COVID-positive cases at the King David Center to the health authorities,” the
pols said in the letter obtained by The Post.
King David has reported two deaths of residents attributed
to COVID-19 and two more presumed deaths, according to the most recent tally
reported by the state Health Department.
“Despite numerous attempts to speak with you or someone from
your staff, there have been no answers. This is dangerous and a complete
abdication of your responsibility to the clients in your care. We will be
speaking with the relevant regulatory authorities to ensure our constituents
are being properly cared for and we expect an immediate reply to discuss our
concerns,” the legislators said.
In 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio came under withering criticism
after city officials approved a deal that had Allure pay the city $16.1 million
in exchange for lifting deed restrictions that required properties on the Lower
East Side to be used to aid the needy.
After the deed restrictions were lifted, the real estate
group then sold Rivington, a former nursing home for AIDS patients, for a $72
million profit in February 2016.
The shady transaction triggered a probe by the state
attorney general that led to a 2018 settlement that required Allure Group to
pay $2 million in penalties and to open new health care facilities and provide
$1.25 million to non-profit groups serving vulnerable New Yorkers.
A former employee claimed Allure “deliberately understaffs
every facility” and called the company “a stain on the industry.”
But the Allure Group defended the performance of its King
David nursing home during the pandemic, noting the state ban on family
visitations.
“The moratorium on nursing home visitations has caused tremendous
hardships for our residents and families. That is why we are doing everything
in our power to keep families informed and in touch with their loved ones,
including equipping every resident with a tablet computer for virtual visits.
Resident safety and wellbeing remains our highest priority,” said Allure
Group’s general counsel, Richard Brum.
“We are following all federal, state and city regulations as
they evolve with respect to treating and reporting COVID-19 cases which
includes a daily report to the NYS Dept. of Health. We will continue to follow
the reporting requirements to the letter of the law. We have great respect for
our elected representatives and will gladly partner with them in any way that
can help us through this unprecedented public health crisis.”
Brum added, “We stand in solidarity with our residents,
patients, their families and our heroic staff in continuing to fight the spread
of this disease and, like them, we look forward to the day when we are able to
reunite families when it is safe to do so.”
More than 5,000 nursing home residents have died from
confirmed or presumed cases of coronavirus, according to the most recent tally
compiled by the state Health Department.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has come under fire for a controversial
March 25 state Health Department order that required nursing homes to admit or
readmit recovering COVID patients from hospitals. Critics claim the policy
unnecessarily unleashed more deaths on a vulnerable population, triggering
calls for an independent federal probe by former Gov. George Pataki and Village
of Hempstead officials.
But Cuomo claimed again Thursday that nursing home operators
had an option to transfer COVID patients elsewhere if they could not safely
isolate them in their facilities.
“We have facilities all across the state that can take any
COVID-positive person from a nursing home. So any nursing home operator who
cannot provide adequate care for anyone in the nursing home, you call the
department of health, we have beds and care for that person and no nursing home
should keep a person in that nursing home who they cannot provide adequate care
for. Period,” the governor said.
He recently called on state Attorney General Letitia James
and state health officials to probe whether nursing home operators complied
with safety regulations during the pandemic.
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