ROCHESTER, N.Y. — News10NBC is continuing to investigate the closure of Waterview Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. The nursing home is scheduled to close Tuesday, but 20 residents still do not have a place to live.
RELATED: Waterview Heights set to close Tuesday: Latest on residents still at the facility and more
The Department of Health requires the nursing home to stay open until every resident is placed. Our Deanna Dewberry has been examining the challenges facing residents with mental illnesses, who must be evaluated before being placed in a new facility to ensure the placement is appropriate.
Evaluating psychiatric patients
Waterview Heights was cited in December for failing to prove that a psychiatric patient was properly evaluated before being admitted. There are not enough nursing home beds in the area, and finding space for residents with a history of mental illness is even more difficult.
A source inside Waterview Heights provided exclusive video of a window that the source said is exactly like the one from which a resident fell or jumped to his death. Numerous sources confirmed the resident suffered from severe mental illness and lived in the south building on the third floor.
READ MORE: Sources say patient who fell from window and died at Waterview was living in psychiatric wing (Aug. 17)
“Being able to protect patients from jumping out a window is basic to protect patients who can get very agitated and anxious and hopeless,” a source said.
Public records confirm Waterview houses residents who suffer from mental illness and take anti-psychotic medications. That practice started in the late 1990s after the Rochester Psychiatric Hospital closed, and patients with mental illness began to fill URMC’s psychiatric department.
“Some of them met a nursing home level of care but no nursing home was willing to accept them,” a source said.
History of Waterview accepting psychiatric patients
Waterview Heights, then called Lakeshore, was one of the nursing facilities that agreed to accept these patients. Carole Farley-Toombs, a registered nurse with a master’s in psychiatric mental health nursing, remembered that time.
“I was at the time director of psychiatric mental health education for the department of psychiatry so I provided the training there with some colleagues over several months,” Farley-Toombs said.
Caring for psychiatric patients
Dewberry: “Did you believe that a nursing home – or that nursing home facility was capable of meeting the level of care that those psychiatric patients needed?”
Farley-Toombs: “What I found is that the staff themselves were very caring and compassionate. But the facility itself and the staffing ratios, these are Medicaid patients and so they’re going to be getting Medicaid reimbursement, are going to be too low really to care for patients who have acute agitation.”
She added that these residents often have complex medical needs and now must find care elsewhere.
“It costs money to care for that patient population well, as well as to do some of the facility things to meet regulations,” Farley-Toombs said.
Other nursing home accepting Waterview residents
The Elder Justice Committee of Metro Justice confirmed that of the 31 nursing homes in Monroe County, only nine have agreed to accept Waterview residents. Of the 58 facilities in the Finger Lakes region, only 18 have accepted Waterview residents.
More stories on Waterview
Here are some of the stories that News10NBC’s Deanna Dewberry has done about Waterview Heights and oversight for local nursing homes:
News10NBC Investigates: Over 70 residents remain at Waterview Heights, still needing new placements Consumer Investigation: Waterview resident said he’s kicked out without notice, left homeless News10NBC Investigates: Waterview’s plan to find beds for more than 160 residents News10NBC Investigates: Going inside nursing homes to see whether they’re following transparency laws Investigates: Exclusive video inside Waterview Heights sheds light on resident’s fall from window Consumer Investigation: 5 of the worst-rated nursing homes in Monroe County overdue for state inspections Consumer Investigation: Waterview Heights closure forces more than 160 residents to find new care placements Consumer Investigation: Inspection raises questions about deaths of 4 residents News10NBC Investigation: Allegations of neglect at Waterview Heights Nursing HomeWaterview Heights closure: Only 9 of 31 Monroe County nursing homes accepting residents WHEC.com.
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