Kaleida's HighPointe nursing home fined $40K for Covid-19 violations

Apr. 19—Kaleida Health's HighPointe on Michigan nursing home in Buffalo has been hit with a $40,000 fine by the state Health Department due to lapses in Covid-19 testing frequency and missed temperature screenings of some employees.

The fine's dollar amount is significant — tied for the 11th-largest fine the Health Department has issued to any nursing home over the past two decades, and within the top 1% of all penalties. It is also the second-largest fine among Western New York long-term care facilities over that period.

The fine, issued Feb. 15, but recently posted on the Health Department's online database, stems from an unannounced Covid-19 infection-control focused inspection on May 7, 2021, that found HighPointe failed to ensure some employees who worked more than three days a week were tested for Covid-19 twice weekly, as required.

Inspectors also uncovered instances where temperature checks of employees were not performed as often as mandated, particularly in cases where a staff member worked a double shift.

No residents were affected due to the deficient practices, the state said, though the mistakes had the "potential to cause more than minimal harm." The state deemed the violations corrected July 2.

Michael Hughes, Kaleida's senior vice president and chief administrative officer, said the health system is "very disappointed" in the Health Department's position, noting that Kaleida objected and contested the fine last year when it became aware of it.

"We truly believe the unprecedented circumstances and our overall performance during the ongoing crisis warranted a better result," Hughes said. "One that acknowledges the facts and what actually occurred here: that the missed temperature checks represent a tiny fraction of the thousands and thousands of temperature checks done to protect the residents of HighPointe. We are disappointed the NYDOH chose to cite us, especially when some of the missed checks really represented workers who were working a double shift and had already been checked at the time they first reported to work.

"While we have complied and paid the fine, we remain steadfast in our belief that HighPointe on Michigan's record during the pandemic stands out among the best for all long-term care facilities in Western New York."

Out of 35 Erie County nursing homes listed in federal data, HighPointe had one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 cases and deaths per 1,000 residents.

The state's visit to HighPointe in May came amid an ongoing surge of inspections to ensure compliance with measures geared toward limiting the virus' spread, especially in the most vulnerable settings. Since March 2020, the Health Department has conducted more than 4,200 infection-control inspections at nursing homes and adult care facilities — with at least one visit to every nursing home and adult care site in the state, spokesperson Jeffrey Hammond said.

HighPointe, a four-story, 300-bed facility that opened more than a decade ago, was last fined by the Health Department in January 2016, slapped with a $16,000 penalty from a February 2015 incident in which nurses were not wearing the required pagers that could have alerted them before a 16-month-old boy hooked up to a feeding tube choked to death on his liquid meal. That incident and another case in 2014 over alleged falsified records for a 56-year-old resident at HighPointe led the attorney general to hit Kaleida with a $500,000 penalty in November 2019.

Over the last 20 years, the highest fine the Health Department has issued to a Western New York nursing home went to Humboldt House Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Buffalo, which was hit with a $50,000 penalty in June 2020 after a visit two months earlier that uncovered infection prevention and control violations as the pandemic was just one month in.

The recent HighPointe fine is the largest so far this year among the penalized nursing homes in the state. But it is not the only recent penalty levied against Western New York nursing homes.

What other facilities got fined?

So far this year, 35 fines have been issued to New York nursing homes through March 22, totaling $304,000 in penalties mostly from inspections last year, according to Health Department records.

Western New York nursing homes are responsible for six of those fines — 17% of the total — but 27% of the total penalties, or $82,000.

Aside from HighPointe, which has an overall three-star rating, or "average," in the federal five-star rating system for nursing homes, here are the local nursing homes that have been penalized since Jan. 1:

—Dunkirk Rehabilitation & Nursing Center was issued a $10,000 fine Feb. 22, connected to a September inspection that found a resident sustained a 42-centimeter-by-7-centimeter second-degree burn to their left lower leg from an electric baseboard heater situated just 12 inches from the resident's bed. Dunkirk Rehabilitation has an overall federal rating of two stars, or below average.

—Williamsville Suburban, at 163 S. Union Road, received a $10,000 fine Jan. 25, tied to a October investigation that found the facility "failed to ensure that the drug regimen of each resident was reviewed at least once monthly by a licensed pharmacist." The pharmacist then was expected to report irregularities to the attending physician and the site's medical director and nursing director. Williamsville Suburban has a one-star federal rating, or "much below average."

—Two of Elderwood's nursing homes got fined. First, Elderwood at Williamsville was assessed a $10,000 penalty Jan. 11, tied to an August inspection related to cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. No further details were available in the state's database. Elderwood at Lockport was fined $2,000 on Jan. 20, pertaining to a July inspection over infection prevention and control, among other measures. Elderwood at Williamsville and at Lockport both have three-star federal ratings.

—Safire Rehabilitation of Northtowns, a one-star rated facility in the Town of Tonawanda, was hit with a $10,000 fine Jan. 6, stemming from an inspection a year earlier for failing to thoroughly investigate and report incidents of possible physical abuse of two residents.

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