Sentosa Corporation: Politics, Corruption & Death

I saw thousands who could have overcome the darkness,
for the love of a lousy buck, I watched them die. Bob Dylan

Sentosa Corporation, operated by two morally corrupt individuals, Ben Landa and Bent Philipson through their political ties to some very powerful politicians, has been allowed to build a network of 25 Nursing Homes in the State of New York. See Newsday Article

Sentosa Corporation operates some of the worst nursing homes in the State of New York. The worst nursing home of the bunch is SPLIT ROCK NURSING HOME in the Bronx (More on Split Rock in a later post). Blog Post On Split Rock (ABC Nursing Home)

The conditions at Split Rock are the same at most of the Sentosa facilities (albeit to a lesser degree in some of their facilities, but not many).

The corrupt, inept, and complicit New York State Department of Health turns a blind eye, because of Sentosa's connections and probably direct payoffs (my opinion, based on the lack of DOH supervision). DOH Complicit in Abuse

CONDITIONS AT SENTOSA CORP. FACILITIES (AND MANY NY STATE FACILITIES) INCLUDE:

1. Bedsores(Decubitus Ulcers)- More residents die in facilities as a result of bedsores, then from any other illness. Bedsores Among the Nursing Home Population. These residents are not turned every 2 hours as required by law. Adding poor nutrition and poor infection control to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster. The only reason that these facilities are not cited for more bed sore cases is because nursing homes are not charting them, the DOH doesn't physically check bed bound residents (they don't even speak to residents during inspections), and hospitals are not reporting cases of NH residents admitted with bedsores.

2. Poor Staffing- The refuge of the substandard nursing home operator for the last 20 years has been crying that there is a "nursing shortage". While there is a nursing shortage in this country, there is a greater shortage of qualified supervisory nursing personnel.

Sentosa hires many of their supervisory nursing employees through their own agency in the Philippines. Sentosa hires these people under false pretenses, often promising them high wages and great living arrangements, free movement, and moving expenses. When these promises are not kept, these good people become very disillusioned. Their complaints are met by Sentosa's high priced attorneys and political connections (Schumer and Pataki.) See Information on Sentosa Nurses

The cultural divide between local nurses aides and foreign supervisors is very wide. This leads to a lack of proper supervision which then leads to neglect and abuse. Rounds in these facilities will often find some nurses aides in residents' rooms watching the soaps or sleeping, especially at night. Foreign nurse supervisors are overwhelmed and afraid of intimidation. Most nurses aides want to do their jobs, but the bad aides, combined with lack of supervision, rule the roost. You can often find caring staff members carrying an uneven share of the burden, handling 12-15 residents while others handling only 6-8. Despite the "nursing shortage", Sentosa Corp., regularly cuts staff on weekends and nights. See Article

3. No Minimum Required Staffing in New York State- New York State unlike most other states, has no minimum on the direct patient care hours that must be spent per patient, per day. While most nursing home watchdog agencies use a minimum of 4.13 hours, NY facilities average about 3.6, and Sentosa averages about 3.2. It is hard to verify these figures as accurate, since the Department of Health does not compare the NH figure's to actual payroll figures. Employees at a number of Sentosa facilities have reported severe shortages on the weekends.

Since a number of Sentosa Corp. facilities also have Adult Day Care Programs, they are probably including these non-direct care employees in their averages. Obviously I can't be certain of this, since I don't have access to their books. The Department of Health has a lax policy as concerns Sentosa facilities.

4. Backround Checks- Most of the Sentosa Nursing Home's have been cited repeatedly by the DOH (Citations by DOH don't have much teeth, therefore are often repeated) for Failure To: 1) Hire only people who have no legal history of abusing, neglecting or mistreating residents; or 2) report and investigate any acts or reports of abuse, neglect or mistreatment of residents.

5. No Real Criteria for Admitting Residents- The only criteria for admission to Sentosa Corp. Nursing Home's is the ability to fill a bed. Any warm body will do. This criteria leads to a volitile mix of residents. Anything goes Included in this mix are:

Bariatric Residents-These residents are obese (400-600 pounds), and are usually in hospitals to lose weight and get counseling in order to go through a surgical procedure to radically reduce their weight. Most nursing homes will not accept these residents because they are below 50 years old and don't have age related diseases. Hospitals have found a haven in Sentosa Corp., who welcomes these residents because they are fairly independent, require little care, provide high reimbursement, and occupy beds for long periods of time.

At Split Rock Nursing Home in the Bronx they accept a steady flow of these people from Jacobi Hospital (a hospital as close to hell as possible on this earth, except for their burn unit which is excellent. I guess they have experience with fire.) Many of these residents are tough street thugs who intimidate the elderly residents, expose themselves, steal their belongings and money, and hang out in the streets at night. At Split Rock, these residents are not even on Diets, nor do they receive proper counseling. Many of them have a history of mental disease. At Split Rock and other Sentosa facilities, these residents are forced to turn over their Social Security checks, although the facility is not entitled to them. I've witnessed this with my own two eyes. The DOH overlooks all this because Medicaid saves a lot of money.

Psychiatric Residents-Sentosa Corp. nursing homes have a greater proportion of these residents than most nursing homes. By now you know the criteria. The problems are the same as above, but add the drain on whatever poor psycho-social services these facilities have.

Alzheimer's Residents- These residents are the most abused residents in sub-standard nursing homes today. Many of them do not have family member. They are not able to speak up for themselves. Putting these residents in with the above is cruel and volitile.

Ventilator Residents- Usually these residents offer no significant problems to other, they themselves are in danger. Since most Sentosa facilities are sub-standard and suffer from poor infection control, this population is in grave danger. In 2005 a ventilator patient died (murdered) at Split Rock Nursing Home, from lack of oxygen. The facility was fined a small amount of money. I don't think that there was a law suit because these facilities go out of their way to find residents without families. It's much easier like that. Most Sentosa facilities don't even have a volunteer program. Who would want to volunteer at these places. Sentosa discourages volunteers unless thay are blind.

6. Many Other Problems-I will talk more about Sentosa in future posts.

Mssrs. Philipson and Landa are extremely generous to any politician that can make things happen for them. They contribute both to Democrats and Republicans (how very bi-partisan). These politicos will do anything necessary for them. They have no regard for the elderly or the nurses that work hard to protect them.

Sentosa contributes and raises big bucks for charities. Reverse Robin Hood. The State of New York pays them $500 Million a year, without much question. Not one of their charity dollars goes towards improving the lives of the elderly.

LETS END ELDER ABUSE NOW, FOR THEM, US, AND OUR CHILDREN.

Comments

[Oscar Michelen]

Dear Mr. Halpern:
I am one of the two attorneys defending the criminal case brought against the 10 nurses and their lawyer after the nurses resigned from their positions. I want to thank you for continually exposing the truth about this mammoth organization -Sentosa. Their treatment of these and other nurses is deplorable. The appeals court has temporarily frozen the criminal case and will shortly decide on whether to permanently freeze it. While we hope for the best, we know we are facing a political powerhouse that's not afraid of spending money to get their way. I'll keep you posted on the case as it progresses. Once again, thank you and keep up the good work! Oscar Michelen

[Angela Jacobs]

I would like to say thank you for posting this informative blog. Elder abuse is growing rapidly due to the massive profits that can be made by not only nursing homes but court appointed guardians.
Here in illinois, there is viturally no protection for elderly people. The justice system is hand fed by fradulant guardians. The protection programs that you are told to report the abuse to, do nothing. They tend to side with the guardians and in alot of cases the agencies are the ones that refer the elder to the guardians.
These protective agency's are state and federal funded and they do not ever want to admit that they may have made a mistake by referring a gaurdian to a certain elder expecially when abuse reports are made.
The agencys as well as the courts will take a blind eye, turn their heads and continue to deny any wrong doing when abuse reoprts are made. They are more worried about their own reputations than they are protecting the elderly from harm.
I have been investigating one particular court appointed guardian here where I live, who has literally 100's of elderly wards she is suppose to fully take care of but she continues to abuse and neglect and earn massive profits off of unsuspected elderly citizens.
This guardian has close political ties with the county, close relationships with the courts, attorneys, nursing homes, banks and area agencys. This guardian continues to neglect and get away with it. This guardian feels invinsible because unfortunately she is.
I have made it my mission to continue to report this guardian, and to tell the stories of her neglect for as long as I am able to breath. I am starting a support group for people and families who have been in these situations. I am also in the middle of trying to start a non profit organization devoted to elder abuse.
I want to make a difference and I want our elderly citzens to be able to grow old in peace and harmony without fear, neglect or exploitation.
Again.. Thank you for posting this blog.
Sincerly Angela Jacobs Advocate for the elderly

[Jonna Baldres]

Good day, sir! I'm the one maintaining the website of the Sentosa nurses. We found your article (Sentosa Corporation: Politics, Corruption & Death) very interesting and we'd just like to ask permission if we could put a link in our website connecting to this article? You can send your reply to the email address I provided. Kindly visit the website too if you get the chance: www.s27plus.com. We'd really appreciate your favorable response. Thank you very much! &=)

[Steve Kirk]

I would be absolutely appalled by your post and more than a little disbelieving of your facts, if not for the fact I am a 20 year veteran of nursing home administration, myself. I have seen similar situations in Illinois. Thankfully, I have not in Georgia or Ohio where I also hold licenses. You display real courage and conviction in your post. Providers like these are what give the industry such a bad name. I got out of administration when it became very clear to me that CMS and the states were complicit in moving the industry toward caring for records and not for people. I will be watching and reading. Keep it up. Steve Kirk, M Div, CNHA, FACHCA, writes the blog Making Perfect Sense, www.theperfectsense.com.

[John Bukar]

My aunt was a resident at Brookhaven and nearly died from neglect. I pulled her out quickly, but I never forgot the horrible things I saw there.