NJ sends team to help Andover nursing home where bodies piled up after coronavirus deaths

Abbott Koloff, Ashley Balcerzak and Jennifer Jean Miller

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday that the state attorney general is investigating a Sussex County nursing home where the bodies of 17 residents were found in a makeshift holding area. Police have said they responded to the home after getting calls from staff members and relatives — including a report that one body had been stored in a shed.

Police said they received an anonymous tip on April 13 about a body stored in a shed at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center in Andover Township. The body had been removed from the shed by the time they arrived, police said. The other bodies were found in a holding area where they were waiting to be moved to funeral homes.

Andover police said 2 bodies were transported by a local funeral home, 13 were transported with local EMS help to a refrigeration trailer at Newton Medical Center, and two remained at the facility for transport the next day.

Andover Subacute and Rehab Center was over whelmed with 17 bodies at their morgue that could only hold 4 bodies in Andover Township, N.J.

State officials said a total of 35 residents had died at the home since the end of March, with 19 of those deaths linked to COVID-19. The Andover home, which is made up of two separate buildings, is the state's largest long-term care facility, with almost 700 beds and more than 500 residents.

Murphy said he was "heartbroken" about reports of deaths at the facility and "outraged that bodies of the dead were piling up in a makeshift facility." He added that he has "asked the state attorney general to look into the matter" along with state health officials. A case like this, he said, "shakes you to the bones."

"New Jerseyans living in our long-term care facilities deserve to be cared for with respect, compassion and dignity," Murphy said. "We can and must do better."

The governor said state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal would conduct a review of all long-term facilities that have had a "disproportionate number of deaths during the COVID outbreak."

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The state Health Department has sent a team of communicable disease experts to the facility to assist staff members and residents, the governor said.

"We know this is an issue that is not unique to New Jersey," Murphy said. "It is national in scope. We know that there are bad actors in the industry across the country. But New Jersey can lead in how we respond to these issues.”

He said the situation was "completely beyond the pale" and "completely unacceptable."

A refrigerated truck serves as a makeshift morgue at the Andover Rehabilitation and Subacute I and II facility in Andover, Sussex County. A hazmat team removed the bodies of 13 residents from the facility on April 13.

The bodies had been piling up behind closed doors at the home, which has become an epicenter of the regional nursing home crisis with the coronavirus sweeping through long-term care facilities across New Jersey and New York.

Across the region, relatives have complained about not being able to get information about loved ones and infection rates inside homes, which have barred visitors. Nurses at some homes have said they've been fired for complaining about a lack of protective gear. And state officials have declined to provide information about individual facilities, citing privacy concerns. Nursing home deaths have accounted for 20% of the COVID-19 fatalities in New York and one in eight deaths in New Jersey.

A quarter of the residents of a Park Ridge nursing home — 33 people — have died since the coronavirus epidemic began, and 22 others who tested positive for COVID-19 have been moved to a facility in Gloucester County, more than 100 miles away, as the crisis enveloping New Jersey’s nursing homes worsens. Among the 33 deaths were 19 who had tested positive for COVID-19.

More sick residents were to be transferred out of the Atrium Post Acute Care at Park Ridge on Thursday, said a spokeswoman for the operators, Spring Hills Senior Communities. They were to be transported to a COVID-only nursing home unit in Livingston.  

State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Thursday that in addition to the Andover deaths, the facility had 103 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19, and 133 more who had flu-like symptoms. She said 52 staff members had flu-like symptoms as well.

An owner of the Andover facility, Chaim Sheinbaum, said in a statement that its staffing levels were now "solid," with 12 nurses and 39 certified nursing assistants, which he indicated is about normal. He said holiday and weekend "issues" combined with more deaths than is usual contributed to "a greater number of bodies in the facility's morgue."

He said the room "ideally" holds four bodies at a time and has a maximum capacity of 12, and that it never held more than 15 bodies at a time.

One section of the facility — which state officials called Andover II — has had 23 complaints resulting in citations over the past three years, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It was given a one-star rating, which means "much below average."

A November 2019 inspection resulted in five citations, including one for a patient whose hip fracture was not diagnosed until 11 days after a fall. It was also cited in its most recent fire inspections for not having a proper emergency preparedness plan and for not having elevators that firefighters could control in the event of a fire.

Federal data shows that the facility's other building, Andover I, fared better, with a three-star rating. It had one cited deficiency earlier this year for failing to properly document a patient’s oxygen use. It was cited in its most recent fire inspection for deficiencies with its automatic sprinkler system.

All of the issues in both areas of the home have since been corrected.

Relatives of residents said they had trouble getting information from the facility — a problem that has been common at nursing homes throughout the state.

Beth Gangi, who lives in Florida, said her uncle died at the facility on April 6. The home had called to say he had been taken to a hospital April 2 with a fever, she said, and then called again to say he was being transported back to the facility. She said her father called several times but was unable to reach anyone to get an update on her uncle's condition until the home called April 6 to say he had died.

She said she was told by the facility that his body exhibited rigor mortis, a stiffening of joints and muscles that usually occurs hours after death. There were no notations in his medical chart from the time he came back from the hospital to his death four days later, she said.

"I am concerned my uncle had no oxygen, suffocated and died alone,” she said. “No one should have to die alone.”

Andover Subacute and Rehab Center was over whelmed with 17 bodies at their morgue that could only hold 4 bodies in Andover Township, N.J.

Persichilli said state officials were notified Saturday that the Andover facility needed body bags and that 28 bodies were being stored there, leading to the initial investigation by a local health official. She said five bodies were found at the facility — another three had been released earlier in the day — and the home appeared to be adequately staffed at the time. It was told to report daily to the Health Department.

After another report of bodies came in days later, Persichilli said, local health officials found that the facility was "short on staffing." She said Health Department staff has been sent to Andover to monitor the facility "on a regular basis."

"We're not pleased with what is going on at the Andover facility," she said.

By Thursday, health and law enforcement officials had arranged for a refrigerator truck to be sent to the home to allow it to store bodies properly.

"Steps have been taken to adequately keep the remains of people who died at the facility," said Greg Mueller, Sussex County's first assistant prosecutor. He said a refrigeration truck at the site would have adequate capacity, and that such trucks can store about 100 bodies.

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Even as deaths mounted in the facility, the numbers weren't reflected in official counts. The Sussex County Division of Health said Andover Township had a total of 22 reported deaths related to COVID-19 as of Wednesday.

The Andover Township police chief, Eric Danielson, said this week that the investigations were prompted by calls from staff members and family members to the county Sheriff's Office and to the police.

The township mayor, Mike Lensak, said the number of deaths at the facility had taken him by surprise.

"This has really blindsided me," he said. "I have concerns about the numbers being reported, and the disconcerting part is we, as the township, have no idea."

State and federal records show that one of the owners of the Andover center also owns two South Jersey nursing homes, in Cinnaminson and Pennsauken, Camden County.

The 114-bed Wynwood Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson and the 180-bed Riverfront Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Pennsauken both list Chaim Sheinbaum of Lakewood as the chief officer of the companies that own them.

As of Wednesday, the Burlington County Department of Health was reporting one death in Cinnaminson involving an 87-year-old woman, but officials were unable to specify whether the woman was a resident of Wynwood or if any residents there have tested positive for the pathogen.

A total of 28 Cinnaminson residents have tested positive, according to the county.

A spokesman for Camden County said there were no recorded deaths from Riverfront in Pennsauken but that officials from the county Department of Health have spoken to members of the center’s medical team about their status. Their most recent contact was on Thursday morning.

Staff Writers Susanne Cervenka, Lori Comstock, Shannon Mullen and David Levinsky contributed to this article.

Abbott Koloff is an investigative reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to his watchdog work that safeguards our communities and democracy, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: koloff@northjersey.com Twitter: @abbottkoloff