The state comptroller's office should be empowered to conduct a thorough audit of New York's nursing home policies and regulations in order to give a full accounting of the problems the facilities faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, state Sen. Sue Serino on Wednesday proposed. 

The proposal comes as state lawmakers are considering a variety of nursing home-related measures this week and as the Legislature moved to fully repeal immunity provisions first put in place last year for the facilities that shielded them from lawsuits

The provision was announced a year after a controversial order that required nursing homes to not turn away COVID-positive patients. The order has since been rescinded, but has become a focal point in the ongoing controversy surrounding nursing home deaths during the pandemic. More than 15,000 residents in New York long-term care and nursing home facilities have died since last March. 

“The same people who thought the March 25 order was a good idea are now in charge of negotiating a State Budget that will have a very real impact on the health and safety of those in nursing homes and residential healthcare facilities," Serino said. 

“To pass legislation—or to include policy proposals in the flurry of State Budget negotiations—without a full, independent review of the state’s response to the COVID crisis in our nursing homes defies logic."

Attorney General Letitia James in January released a report finding New York under counted the number of nursing home and long-term care facility residents fatalities since March by not including those who had died in hospitals or at home. The report also assessed staffing at the facilities and other factors at work amid the pandemic.

But Serino's proposal wants an investigation to go further, requiring Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office to audit the state Department of Health, as well as another executive branch agency on the impact of the state's policies for nursing homes and long-term care facilities and COVID-19. The audit would cover state funding, infection prevention policies, a regional analysis of qualified staff and patient care outcomes for the facilities. 

"To date, we have no understanding of how or why certain decisions were made, and the Legislature’s Supermajority has blocked every attempt we put forward to get those answers," Serino said. "Today, when given yet another opportunity to do right by the thousands of grieving families who are desperate for answers, they again chose inaction. We will not stop pushing for the answers and accountability these residents, their loved ones and the dedicated staff who care for them deserve.”