Letters: Responding to Medford nursing home coverage
Medford Multicare Center for Living is accused of putting its most vulnerable residents at risk with "reckless cuts of medication, staff and supplies," even causing death, state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said in a civil suit filed Monday, Feb. 11, 2014. Credit: James Carbone
Your Feb. 17 editorial, "The nightmare nursing home," portrays Medford Multicare Center as a facility that neither cares about its patients nor provides a healthy environment for them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
At Medford, we have always prided ourselves on delivering high-quality and compassionate care for our residents. We go above and beyond the safety requirements set by the state, and we have received increasingly positive evaluations from the state Department of Health. In fact, Medford received a deficiency-free report during its most recent inspection by the Department of Health, an accomplishment that is both rare and impressive.
While we are very concerned by the complaint filed by the state attorney general, and the criminal charges against some of our employees, we know that these allegations are not indicative of the excellent quality of care that we and our dedicated staff provide.
We want to emphasize that all the claims and statements made by the attorney general are merely allegations, and that we are confident that during the forthcoming legal proceedings our attorneys will prove the accurate facts and will establish that the characterizations announced by the attorney general are not correct.
We look forward to correcting the record as the legal process continues and proving that Medford provides excellent care to its residents and truly is a place that people can trust.
Andrew Moesel, Medford
Editor's note: The writer is spokesman for the Medford Multicare Center.
I'm glad to see Newsday is focusing on "the nightmare nursing home."
There should be a thorough investigation into how a state-licensed health facility is able to repeatedly ignore lack-of-compliance warnings from the state without appropriate enforcement.
These nursing home owner syndicates and how they operate, along with their "rubber stamp" state-licensed administrators, have long been a concern in health care.
Regulations are in place to protect persons too debilitated to defend themselves.
The state should suspend the center's license or appoint a receiver to manage the facility, which would send a strong message to all unscrupulous owners.
Frank M. Volz Jr., West Babylon
Editor's note: The writer is a speech pathologist .
