Daniel E. Straus and Seniors Post-Hurricane Sandy

A few months ago, prior to Hurricane Sandy, the NY City Council decided to leave patients in hospitals and nursing homes.  At the last minute this decision had to be overturned.  Thus last week, the council was called upon to defend their original decision.  According to Tom Farley, the Health Commissioner, while it’s always easy to say better safe than sorry, in this situation there was no certain safe option.  It was therefore decided they should remain (initially) as moving vulnerable patients is problematic too. No-one knew what to do for the best. Nursing home administrators, owners, medical directors, etc., all had different ideas as to the best action.  There was no unifying decision amongst the organizations and thus what transpired was quite chaotic.  Hence the groups are being called to justify their actions at this time.

Ultimately Farley made the decision before Hurricane Sandy not to move patients as, having weighed the options, officials felt it safer to stay.  However, later on the decision was overturned and what resulted was a rushed, panicked evacuation in New York of 6,300 patients form 37 facilities.  These individuals needed to be moved out following flooding or loss of power.

Another problem of this impromptu evacuation, was the patients’ loved ones.  For days they had no idea of the whereabouts of the patients due to the loss of power.  And thus according to Councilman David Greenfield, the situation was described as “chaotic.”  Thus the reason for the current investigation as to what should have been done, and to what steps are to be taken should there be a reoccurrence of a similar situation.