Sick NY nursing home residents reportedly sent to die at hospitals amid pandemic

Dying residents of a New York nursing home were reportedly dumped at local hospitals amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report — raising even more questions about the Cuomo administration’s handling of such homes during the crisis.

Over five weeks during the pandemic, a nurse with the Columbia County Health Department counted 18 hospital deaths of residents at the Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell in the town of Valatie, ProPublica reported Tuesday.

The nurse, who was not identified, explained that all the residents had arrived at the hospital with orders saying no extraordinary measures were to be taken to keep them alive, leading health officials to make a troubling deduction.

“For me,” Columbia County Department of Health Director Jack Mabb told ProPublica, “it appeared they were sending people to the hospital so they wouldn’t die in the facility.”