Picture 592 nursing homes. Now picture 566 of them running short on the people who turn residents, change them, feed them and check their skin. That is New York at the end of 2024, according to a new report from a residents’ advocacy group.
As first reported by the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC), 95.6 percent of New York nursing homes with comparable data were staffed below the levels expected to meet residents’ basic care and clinical needs. More than three out of four were at least 20 percent short.
The report, released October 28, looks at federal staffing, inspection, citation and penalty data from 2022 through 2024. LTCCC is a nonprofit that advocates for nursing home residents, and this is the New York piece of its national study, The Accountability Gap.
One finding stands out for families. New York’s rate of residents with unhealed pressure ulcers was higher than the national rate for the entire study period. Every year. Not once did the state dip below average.
Pressure ulcers, also called bedsores or pressure injuries, are one of the clearest signs of whether a nursing home is doing the basic work. They form when a resident is left in one position too long. Turning, moisture care, nutrition and daily skin checks prevent most of them. All of that takes staff.
Here is the part that should bother everyone. According to the report, 83.2 percent of the citations New York facilities received for substandard pressure ulcer care were classified as causing no harm to the resident.
Across all health citations, the pattern was even starker. Of 8,350 deficiencies cited from 2022 to 2024, only 3.1 percent were labeled as causing actual harm or putting residents in immediate jeopardy. The rest went down as “no harm.”
LTCCC asked the obvious question in its own release, and that is the line in our subhead. A wound that can tunnel to bone is hard to describe as harmless.
The report also found that New York homes averaged the fourth-lowest rate in the country for meeting expected staffing levels, yet only 104 citations for insufficient nursing staff were issued in 2024. Just one of those was classified as harming a resident.
At Bedsore.Law, the cases we see rarely start with one dramatic mistake. They start with a short shift. Two aides doing the work of four. A turning schedule that exists on paper and not at the bedside. A wound that gets noted as “stable” for weeks while it quietly gets deeper.
Numbers like these explain why. When nearly every home in a state is understaffed, bedsores are not a surprise. They are the predictable result. And when the official record calls most of those wounds “no harm,” families can be left believing their loved one’s injury was minor, or unavoidable, when it was neither.
A 1-star or 5-star rating, or a clean-looking inspection history, does not tell you what happens on the night shift. The chart and the resident’s skin do.
Ask the facility how many aides and nurses are on your loved one’s unit during the day, at night and on weekends. Ask how often your loved one is turned and repositioned, and where that is written down. During visits, look at the heels, the tailbone and the hips, or ask a nurse to check with you.
If you are told a wound is “not a big deal,” ask what stage it is, how big it is, and how it has changed since it was first found. Write the answers down with the date. The LTCCC report also includes searchable facility-level data, which New York families can use to see how a specific home has staffed over time.
If your loved one developed a bedsore or other injury in a nursing home, Bedsore.Law can help you understand what happened and whether it should have been prevented. Call 844-407-6737 or visit bedsore.law/contact for a free, confidential consultation.
Long Term Care Community Coalition (NursingHome411)
