This Queens Nursing Home Has Seen NYC's Most Coronavirus Deaths

GLEN OAKS, QUEENS — At least 119 people at the Parker Jewish Institute in Northeast Queens have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began — the most of any New York City nursing home, according to new state data that includes thousands of deaths that were not previously reported.

That includes 35 Parker Jewish residents who died of the virus outside the nursing home after being transferred to hospitals, the new New York State Department of Health data shows.

The three-digit death toll lands Parker Jewish third on the list of nursing homes with the most COVID-19 deaths in the state and first among New York City nursing homes, according to a Patch analysis of data through Feb. 17.

Though Parker straddles the border between Queens and Nassau Counties, and its address reads New Hyde Park, the state health department classifies it as a Queens facility.

Only Harris Hill Nursing Facility in Erie County and the Long Island State Veterans Home in Suffolk County reported more deaths than Parker, the data shows.

Lina Scacco, Parker's vice president for corporate outreach and development, wrote in an emailed statement to Patch that the facility classified any death of a COVID-19-positive resident as a death from the virus, "even if the more proximate cause of death appeared to be a comorbidity, such as heart disease or other advanced disease state."

"This was a voluntary decision Parker instituted, which may reasonably be expected to result in a higher total number of deaths classified as a COVID death," Scacco said.

In May, when Patch first reported on COVID-19 deaths in the nursing home and families' allegations that the facility had too few protective measures and not enough workers, Scacco attributed the number of deaths to the facility's size, the number of residents with advanced health conditions and its ability to start testing for the virus earlier than other nursing homes.

Parker Jewish has 527 beds, but its average occupancy is 361 residents, according to data reported this year to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo finally released the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 at hospitals after an explosive Jan. 28 report by the state attorney general, which accused his team of undercounting nursing home deaths by more than 50 percent by only including deaths inside the actual nursing homes.

The new data has added thousands of deaths to the state's tally of nursing home fatalities from the virus, for a total of roughly 13,000 confirmed and presumed COVID-19 deaths among residents of nursing homes.

That still does not include hundreds of nursing home residents whose deaths at hospitals are only presumed to be from the coronavirus. Presumed COVID-19 deaths inside nursing homes are included.

Before the state released the new data, Parker Jewish listed 81 coronavirus deaths among its residents. Counting COVID-19 deaths of residents transferred to hospitals added nearly three dozen people to that death toll.

"The Attorney General’s report confirmed what we already knew – that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed challenges in the nursing home industry, not only at Parker Jewish, but throughout the nursing home industry," said Timothy Rodgers, area vice president of 1199SEIU, New York's largest health care union. "Parker Jewish has not been alone in its struggle during the pandemic."

Following the release of the additional data on nursing home deaths, union leaders launched a campaign lobbying for nursing home reforms, according to a 1199SEIU spokesperson.

Their demands include higher pay for nursing home employees and a requirement that nursing homes spend at least 70 percent of their revenue on resident care.

In December 2020, the first doses of the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Parker Jewish.

“The COVID-19 vaccines are key in protecting against the virus. We are doing everything we possibly can at Parker to keep our residents and our team members safe,” Michael N. Rosenblut, Parker’s president and CEO, said in a statement the following month. “We are so grateful to be at this turning point now in the fight against the pandemic.”