Syracuse, N.Y. – Bishop Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Syracuse could lose federal funding and be forced to shut down if it does not improve care.
Federal and state regulators have added the 440-bed nursing home at 918 James St. to the government’s “special focus facility” list of the nation’s worst nursing homes.
Nursing homes on that list are inspected at least twice a year. Nursing homes are typically inspected once a year.
Homes that don’t improve can be kicked out of the government Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs. Medicare and Medicaid are the major sources of funding for the nation’s 15,600 nursing homes. They cannot survive without that money.
Bishop received $19 million in Medicaid funding in 2020.
As regulators added Bishop to the list, they removed Pontiac Nursing Home in Oswego from the dishonor roll.
That 80-bed facility made enough improvement over the past 11 months to graduate from the special focus facility program.
Bishop landed on the list because of its persistent record of poor care.
Bishop has been cited for deficiencies three times more often than the average New York nursing home, according to state records.
One resident suffered a heart attack and kidney failure after being given another resident’s medications by mistake, according to a recent state Health Department inspection.
Bishop was faulted for failing to supervise a 79-year-old resident who died last year after falling from a third-story window.
Syracuse police arrested a Bishop nurse aide in 2019 and accused her of slapping a 90-year-old woman in the face with a wet cloth, leaving the woman with bruises.
Bishop is owned by Edward Farbenblum of Long Island who has ownership stakes in 11 other nursing homes in New York state.
Farbenblum bought the home, formerly known as James Square, in 2017. James Square had a reputation for poor care and Farbenblum vowed to turn it around.
Now he is seeking state approval to sell Bishop to Centers Health Care, a Bronx-based nursing home chain.
In order to get off the list, a nursing home must pass two consecutive inspections without being cited for any severe deficiencies.
Pontiac was added to the list last year after being cited for failing to protect residents from sexual abuse, not sending gravely ill residents to the hospital for emergency care and letting water from a leaky roof drip into residents’ rooms for years.
There are 81 nursing homes nationwide on the special focus facility list.
Aside from Bishop, there are two other New York nursing homes on the list: Buffalo Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Buffalo and The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing in Valatie.
New York can only have three nursing homes at a time on the special focus facility list.
When one or more of those three slots open up, regulators fill them with other poor performing nursing homes considered candidates for the special focus facility program.
There are 15 New York nursing homes currently designated as “candidates” for the special focus facility list.
They include Van Duyn Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Syracuse and Onondaga Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Minoa.
James T. Mulder covers health and higher education. Have a news tip? Contact him at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com