A New Jersey nursing home that drew national attention early in the pandemic is still open, just under a different name, according to an investigation by NBC News.
The facility in Andover Township, formerly known as Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center II, now operates as Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center. NBC News reported that it remains under the same ownership.
In April 2020, police found 17 bodies inside the facility’s small morgue after receiving a tip. According to NBC News, 83 residents died of COVID in the first months of the pandemic, roughly one out of every six people living there.
NBC News also reported that one of the owners was previously involved with Skyline Healthcare, a nursing home chain that collapsed amid accusations of financial mismanagement and neglect. Harvard Medical School health policy professor David Grabowski told the outlet the situation amounted to “different names, same practices.”
The facility’s problems reportedly started before COVID. In 2019, a resident with dementia was able to leave through broken automatic doors and was found outside in the snow with frostbite, according to the report. Her family filed a lawsuit that was still pending at the time.
A former maintenance worker, Preston, told NBC News that residents were moved around the building early in the outbreak without anyone knowing who had the virus, because there was no testing, and that he believes this helped the virus spread. He also described finding a resident’s body in an outdoor shed because the morgue had run out of room.
According to NBC News, an inspection around that same period found problems with feeding, wound care, and infection control, and found that deaths were not being properly reported to health officials.
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The facility was among those included in an ongoing review of nursing homes with high COVID death counts and poor inspection records, and families of some residents who died have filed a class action lawsuit that was moving through state court. The claims in those lawsuits had not been decided at the time of NBC’s report.
