From the Daily News:
Sandy has piled on to a hospital bankruptcy debacle to write a prescription for disaster.
Conditions have deteriorated at a Rockaway health facility that cares for some of the most at-risk patients, sources told the Daily News.
The Peninsula Center for Extended Care and Rehabilitation is under siege with an overload of patients, frazzled employees and a lack of fresh food, several staffers told The News on Thursday.
The nursing home, affiliated with the shuttered Peninsula Hospital, has been receiving patients from nearby facilities severely compromised by the superstorm.
“It’s exasperating. We’re short-staffed,” said one employee who requested anonymity. “It’s a nightmare. It just seems like there’s no end in sight.”
The 200-bed nursing home is filled to the brim and doesn’t have enough staff to properly care for the frail patients, employees said.
The number of residents assigned to each nursing team has nearly doubled, several staffers said, and there isn’t a working kitchen to provide the residents with food. Meals are being shuttled in from an outside facility.
“The patients are starting to act out,” said the staffer. “They’re used to a certain standard of care and it’s lacking on all sides. I feel very sorry for them.”
“Patient safety is at risk,” said another worker who also requested anonymity.
Who allowed the nursing home to repopulate when these problems were evident?
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