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State: Nurses quitting didn't jeopardize residents

BY MICHAEL AMON AND RIDGELY OCHS | michael.amon@newsday.com; ridgely.ochs@newsday.com

January 17, 2008

A state Department of Health inquiry has found that residents at a Smithtown nursing home "were not placed in jeopardy" by the mass resignation of 10 nurses in 2006, a spokesman said.

The health department's findings come less than two weeks before the nurses - all Filipino immigrants - are scheduled for a Jan. 28 trial in Suffolk County on charges of conspiracy and endangering patients in a pediatric ventilation unit at Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.

The Suffolk County district attorney's office questioned the thoroughness of the inquiry and defended the grand jury probe that led to the nurses' indictment in March.

Still, the health department is the second major state government agency to support the nurses' claims that patients were not endangered. The state Education Department, which licenses nurses, found in 2006 that the nurses did not abandon patients.

"This is the final straw," defense attorney Oscar Michelen said. "This is vindication that these nurses did nothing wrong, especially when it is the department in charge of patient care saying it."

Prosecutors and the nursing home's main owners, Benjamin Landa and Bent Philipson, contend that the nurses endangered patients by prompting a staffing crisis with their resignations on April 7, 2006. The nurses did so after complaining for months about working conditions. However, records reviewed by the health department's Office of Long-term Care showed that the nursing home was fully staffed after the nurses' departure, said Jeffrey Hammond, a health department spokesman.

"The shifts were covered and patients were not placed in jeopardy," Hammond said.

The inquiry was begun in October to determine why Avalon Gardens did not inform state health authorities of the incident. Newsday articles on Sept. 23 and 24, 2007 reported that all shifts were covered on the day the nurses resigned and described connections between the nursing home owners' political relationships and the indictment of the nurses.

State law requires a nursing home to report any "mistreatment, neglect and abuse" to the health department.

The district attorney's probe began after a private meeting District Attorney Thomas Spota held with the nursing home's owners, attorney and administrator in May 2006. Spota had received $1,500 in campaign contributions from the attorney, Howard Fensterman, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser. Fensterman and Spota have said the contribution played no role in the investigation.

Robert Clifford, a spokesman for Spota, said in a statement that the health department did not contact the district attorney's office.

"The 10 nurses and their attorney are under indictment after a grand jury heard evidence that they endangered the welfare of children and a disabled person who are dependent on mechanical ventilators to breathe," Clifford said.

Assistant District Attorney Leonard Lato said the Health Department did not visit the nursing home or contact its administrator. Rather, Lato said, the department asked one of the nursing home's owners for records showing which nurses were on call to fill shifts left open by the resigning nurses.

"That's it. Nothing beyond pure numbers. No doctor was spoken with, no nurse, nobody who was actually caring for these children," said Lato, who said his information came from the nursing home's administrator, Susan O'Connor.

Hammond said he could not say whether an on-site visit was made by the state.

Gary Lewi, a spokesman for SentosaCare, headquartered in Woodmere, a group of nursing homes including Avalon Gardens, declined to make O'Connor available for interviews because she will testify at the upcoming trial.

Their case goes to court

April 7, 2006. The nurses quit. Ten nurses from Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Smithtown quit after complaints about pay, hours and benefits.

April 25. Schumer's role. Sen. Charles Schumer writes Philippine consul general asking her to meet with SentosaCare.

May 24. The Philippines steps in. The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) suspends Sentosa Recruitment Agency, which recruited nurses.

May 31. Spota gets involved. SentosaCare officials meet with Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota to ask him to investigate the nurses' resignations.

June 2. Schumer acts again. Schumer writes to POEA chief and nation's top labor official.

June 8. Then SentosaCare wins one. POEA lifts suspension after a call from Philippines president's chief of staff.

June 27. Another Schumer letter. Schumer writes to Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Sept. 13, 2006. A state agency clears nurses. Education department clears the nurses of wrongdoing.

March 22, 2007. But 10 nurses are indicted. Suffolk grand jury hands up a misdemeanor indictment.

Sept. 4. They lose in Philippines, too. POEA dismisses the nurses' complaints.

Jan. 15, 2008. Then health agency clears them. State health officials rule Avalon residents not put in jeopardy.

Coming Jan. 28. The trial. In State Supreme Court in Riverhead.