OSWEGO, N.Y. – Oswego code enforcement officials threatened to shut down Pontiac Nursing Home in March after discovering an elaborate jerry-rigged system of hoses and buckets collecting water leaking through the roof into residents’ rooms.
“It was like nothing we have ever seen,” said Oswego Mayor William Barlow. “It was appalling to see they went to such an extent not to repair the problem, but work around the problem.”
Some hoses emptied water into buckets. Other hoses were permanently fastened to walls next to electrical outlets in residents’ rooms and threaded out windows to divert the water outdoors.
A code enforcement inspector visited Pontiac March 5 after a resident’s relative called the city and complained about the leaking, according to Barlow.
A maintenance worker showed the inspector several rooms with leaks. But the inspector was kicked out after a nursing home supervisor learned he was in the building, Barlow said.
The inspector went to Oswego City Hall with photos he took inside Pontiac. He obtained an order threatening to close the facility and move residents out unless he was allowed to return and complete his investigation.
The city fined the nursing home $5,000. It also got the nursing home to agree to make a $60,000 roof repair within 30 days or pay another $20,000 fine. Barlow said the nursing home fixed the roof.
An inspection by the state Health Department found the roof had been leaking seven years and water was dripping into at least 20 residents’ rooms. Nurses were required to empty the buckets.
“To have somebody lying there who is elderly and have a bucket of rain water running in your room next to you. It’s amazing that was allowed to happen,” Barlow said.
The health department recently faulted the nursing home at 303 East River Road for failing to get emergency care fast enough for two residents who died. A health department inspection also found a third resident with a blood clot in his leg did not get anticoagulant medication for three weeks because of a record-keeping error.
The 80-bed for-profit nursing home at 303 East River Road is rated “much below average” by Medicare. Pontiac has generated 288 complaints per 100 occupied beds over the past four years -- 6 ½ times more than the average New York nursing home, according to the state Health Department.
“It has a reputation here of not treating its tenants right,” Barlow said.
Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard will be following up on this story. If you want to share your experiences at Pontiac Nursing Home contact reporter James T. Mulder at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com
Nursing home order to fix roof by James Mulder on Scribd
