State Sends ‘Critical Team’ To Edison Veterans Home Plagued By Safety Violations

EDISON, NJ — Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday he was sending a team of administrators to the Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park to address the various safety violations.

The team of healthcare professionals, who officials describe as ‘Mission Critical Team,’ will help the state-run nursing home to make improvements and correct other safety violations.

The comes a week after the Fed threatened to cut off financial aid to the nursing home after a report detailed medical errors at the facility, which had one of the highest COVID-19 related deaths in the state. More: Menlo Park Veterans Home CEO Must Resign, Says Freeholder

The Murphy administration said it was sending three experts into the veterans home responding to a request from NJ Adjutant General Lisa Hou to send a team to guide the facility’s ongoing efforts to improve resident care.

“While my Administration has taken important steps to improve the performance and strengthen the resiliency of our veterans' memorial homes over the past few years, it is clear our work is not done,” Murphy said in a media statement.

“The Department of Health’s inspection of the Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park has given us crucial insight into the challenges currently facing this facility. We must, and will, hold State-owned facilities to the same standards we hold privately-owned long-term care facilities. It is our solemn duty as a State to protect the health and well-being of the veterans in our care – the very veterans who once put their lives on the line to protect this nation.”

In August, the state agreed to pay eight-digit settlement to resolve claims that its veteran's homes mishandled the early days of COVID-19. This after the New Jersey agreed to pay nearly $69 million to families of deceased residents and staff. More: Lawsuits Pile On After NJ Agrees To $16M For Veteran's Home Deaths

The three-member team works within DOH’s Office of Long-Term Care Resiliency. Two members of the team, an administrator and a nurse consultant, have already arrived at the facility and an infection control preventionist, will join them on Nov. 28.

The team will spend one month at the facility, reviewing all processes and embedding best practices for long-term and ongoing improvements.

A group of NJ legislators who have been working to develop reforms at state-run veterans home, released a statement saying they welcomed the Murphy administrations move to send the team.

“It underscores the need for institutional reforms to improve the quality of care at Menlo Park and the other state-run homes for veterans,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “We look forward to the findings of the team and the health inspectors in order to fully understand the hard lessons that need to be learned from the reoccurring problems that have occurred at Menlo Park and elsewhere. The conditions need to be corrected.”

Senators Joe Vitale, Joe Cryan, Vin Gopal, Joe Lagana and Patrick Diegnan said the state needs to develop a “thoughtful and thorough plan that ensures the best possible care and treatment of the residents, their families and caregivers.”

“We must live up to the promise that was made to the men and women who served our country with selfless honor. They have earned our gratitude and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity,” the Senators said.

The state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs operates three veterans' homes in New Jersey – Edison, Paramus and Vineland.

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