DOJ: Menlo Park, Paramus veterans homes violated civil rights with inadequate medical care

By Alvin Wu
Domestic Affairs
DOJ: Menlo Park, Paramus veterans homes violated civil rights with inadequate medical care

View of the entrance to the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. ZFJ/Alvin Wu

EDISON, N.J., Sept. 12 (ZFJ) — State-run veterans homes at Menlo Park and Paramus have failed to adequately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and provide medical care to their residents, announced the Justice Department on Thursday, Sept. 7.

The feds said that the conditions at the veterans homes, which provide long-term nursing care to veterans and their families and are under the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMAVA), violate the Fourteenth Amendment right to reasonable safety when in the state’s care.

The DOJ’s scathing report criticized the veterans homes’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in March and April of 2020.

“A systemic inability to implement clinical care policy, poor communication between management and staff, and a failure to ensure basic staff competency let the virus spread virtually unchecked throughout the facilities,” the report reads.

Among the systemic deficiencies the DOJ observed included staff failing to properly wear personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of staff training in infection control and disinfecting, failure to quarantine infected residents, and a lack of social distancing.

The department also found failures to monitor exposed residents for COVID symptoms, effectively address staff concerns, and communicate with family members regarding residents’ health statuses.

The DOJ asserts that the state grossly underreported the number of initial COVID deaths by excluding probable COVID deaths from its count (counting only death certificates that listed COVID and patients with positive tests—when many died before ever being tested). The feds found that deaths in Menlo Park and Paramus increased by 247% and 179% compared to the same time period last year, and discharges to hospitals (where many residents ended up dying during the early pandemic) increased by 578% and 200% respectively.

“It is clear that the number of deaths during COVID’s early months was substantially higher than the numbers publicly disclosed, and substantially higher than at other facilities,” said the report.

The Justice Department says that the veterans homes are still failing to train staff properly; enforce compliance with infection control; and implement PPE usage, COVID testing, quarantine, and cleaning. It acknowledges some measures put in place but calls them “plainly insufficient.”

The DOJ also observed other deficiencies in medical care, including inadequate monitoring for changes in residents’ health condition, failing to individualize and adapt care plans to meet patients’ needs, lack of fall prevention measures, and systemic failures to administer medications on time.

The feds reported “inadequate cooperation” from the state veterans affairs department with the civil right investigation, noting that state personnel followed DOJ investigators and discouraged staff from acting as witnesses. The DOJ reported that subpoenaed medical records were delayed, incomplete, and disorganized.

To fix the identified problems, the Justice Department recommended that the veterans homes implement reliable infection control, improve the quality of medical care, maintain records of key data, and enforce accountability among staff.

The Menlo Park facility has 312 beds, while the Paramus one has 336.

“The U.S. Department of Justice’s report on the veterans homes in Menlo Park and Paramus is a deeply disturbing reminder that the treatment received by our heroic veterans is unacceptable and, quite frankly, appalling,” said Governor Phil Murphy, who has come under fire for his administration’s handling of COVID in the veterans homes.

“It is clear that we have significantly more work to do and we are open to exploring all options to deliver for our veterans the high level of care they deserve and are entitled to under the law,” he said in the statement.

The state has previously replaced its director of veterans healthcare services and the CEOs of the veterans homes.

On Nov. 22, 2022, Murphy’s administration announced that it was sending a three-member team of infection prevention professionals to the Menlo Park veterans home.

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