New York DOH Enforcement Actions Against Nursing Homes in Nassau, Suffolk, NYC, Westchester, and Rockland: What Families Need to Know
- Brett Leitner
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
By Leitner Warywoda PLLC | Published May 2026
When the New York State Department of Health (DOH) issues an enforcement action against a nursing home, it is not a routine administrative event. It is a formal declaration — backed by inspection records, complaints, and documented findings — that a facility has failed to protect the people entrusted to its care. In recent months, facilities across Nassau County, Suffolk County, New York City, Westchester, and Rockland County have been cited, fined, and sanctioned for serious lapses in resident safety.
Leitner Warywoda PLLC is currently investigating claims of neglect, abuse, and serious injuries sustained at nursing home facilities across these counties. If your family member was harmed, we want to hear from you.
What Is a DOH Enforcement Action?
New York nursing homes are regulated by both the New York State Department of Health and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). These agencies have the authority to conduct unannounced inspections — typically every 9 to 15 months — and to investigate complaints from residents, families, and staff.
When an inspection uncovers a violation, DOH classifies it based on severity:
Immediate Jeopardy (IJ): The most serious designation. It means a facility's action — or failure to act — has placed residents at immediate risk of serious harm or death. Immediate Jeopardy citations trigger mandatory corrective action, steep civil penalties, and in severe cases, denial of Medicare/Medicaid payment or closure of the facility.
Actual Harm: A documented injury or significant adverse outcome caused by the facility's failure to comply with standards of care.
Pattern of Harm: Repeated violations indicating systemic, not isolated, failures — a particularly damning finding in litigation.
No Actual Harm, But Potential for Harm: Violations that did not yet cause documented injury but created substantial risk.
Once violations are substantiated, DOH issues a Statement of Deficiencies — a formal written record of every failure found during the survey. Facilities may be required to submit a Plan of Correction, pay civil monetary penalties, or face administrative proceedings before the Bureau of Administrative Hearings. In the most egregious cases, facilities are placed on the federal Special Focus Facility (SFF) list, which subjects them to enhanced oversight and more frequent inspections.
Enforcement actions are public record and are available through the NYS Health Profiles database, ProPublica's Nursing Home Inspect tool, and the CMS Care Compare database. They are among the most powerful pieces of evidence in a nursing home negligence lawsuit.
A Significant Escalation: February 2026 Civil Penalties for Staffing Failures
In a landmark enforcement development, in February 2026, the New York State Department of Health issued its first round of civil penalty notices to 20 nursing homes statewide for failure to comply with New York's mandatory minimum staffing law — Public Health Law § 2895-b. The penalties covered noncompliance spanning from April 1, 2022 (Quarter 2 of 2022) through December 31, 2023 — the first seven quarters of enforcement under the staffing mandate.
After applying statutory mitigating factors, the total penalties assessed against these 20 facilities amounted to $4,259,596. Legal analysts have noted that if maximum penalties had been applied to all noncompliant facilities across the same period, total recoupments could have reached approximately $114 million — reflecting the extraordinary scope of staffing failures across the industry.
Under New York law, nursing homes must maintain minimum staffing levels measured in hours of care per resident per day (HPRD):
3.5 total HPRD (combined nursing hours)
2.2 RN/LPN hours per resident per day
1.3 CNA hours per resident per day
Despite these mandates, estimates suggest that approximately 80% of New York nursing home facilities failed to fully meet one or more components of the staffing mandate during this enforcement period. This is not a minor technical deviation — chronic understaffing is the root cause of the most serious injuries in nursing homes, from preventable falls and bedsores to delayed emergency response and resident-on-resident assaults.
Recent DOH Enforcement Actions: Nassau and Suffolk Counties
Water's Edge Rehab and Nursing Center — Port Jefferson, Suffolk County
Water's Edge was cited for two separate, life-threatening incidents in 2025 that resulted in the largest combined fines against a Long Island nursing home that year.
First incident: In late January 2025, a resident developed a dangerously high fever and a rapid heart arrhythmia. A nurse on duty recommended an immediate emergency hospital transfer for a blood transfusion. A supervisor overruled that decision — choosing to wait until morning. By the early morning hours, the resident was dead. The New York State Department of Health fined the facility $10,000 for this failure.
Second incident: In a separate inspection, federal CMS regulators found that a resident who required a medical oxygen tank suffered respiratory distress after the tank ran empty. According to inspection records, a nurse initially dismissed the resident's pleas for help as exaggeration and a panic attack — before someone realized the oxygen supply had been exhausted. CMS fined Water's Edge approximately $154,000 — the single largest federal fine against a Long Island nursing home in 2025.
Pine Forest Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare — Huntington, Suffolk County
In 2024, state regulators documented a profoundly disturbing failure at Pine Forest: a resident with a known documented history of suicidal ideation was able to open an unsecured second-story window and jump out, sustaining multiple fractures. This citation — reflecting catastrophic supervision and safety failures — was among the most serious enforcement actions in the region and drew significant attention from patient safety advocates.
Pine Forest Center is listed among the nursing homes that received enforcement actions in the DOH database for the applicable reporting period.
The Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing — Southampton, Suffolk County
The Hamptons Center received both state and federal penalties after a non-verbal Alzheimer's patient was sexually assaulted by a nursing home aide while other staff were occupied with an emergency on a different unit. The state fined the facility $10,000, and CMS imposed a federal penalty in excess of $40,000. The incident underscores how critically understaffing creates dangerous conditions — when all available staff were redirected to address a code blue, no one was left to monitor a vulnerable, non-verbal resident.
The facility is identified on ProPublica's Nursing Home Inspect tool as a Special Focus Facility with a history of serious quality issues.
Hempstead Park Nursing Home — Hempstead, Nassau County
Hempstead Park Nursing Home was cited after a resident went missing for over twenty hours despite being an active resident on the facility's census and care records. The facility's failure to maintain adequate supervision and implement proper elopement protocols constitutes a violation of 10 NYCRR 415.12(h), which requires facilities to ensure the environment remains free of hazards and that residents receive adequate supervision.
Maria Regina Rehabilitation and Nursing — Brentwood, Suffolk County
Maria Regina was cited for failing to protect a dementia patient who ingested a hazardous substance while under the facility's supervision. This type of violation — a failure to prevent a cognitively impaired resident from accessing dangerous materials — reflects systemic breakdowns in care planning, supervision, and environmental safety.
San Simeon by the Sound Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation — Greenport, Suffolk County
San Simeon was among only nine Long Island nursing homes fined by the state in 2025. The facility was fined $4,000 for failing to properly report and investigate abuse allegations, including an incident in which a certified nursing assistant was documented as having slapped a resident in the face and pushed the resident back to bed forcibly. The resident had "severe cognition impairment," requiring full physical assistance. A second citation involved the facility's failure to ensure that two separate allegations of sexual abuse were properly investigated. Over the past four years, San Simeon has accumulated $16,000 in state fines.
Recent Enforcement Actions: New York City
Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center — Brooklyn (Coney Island)
Seagate has been the subject of repeated DOH citations and, most devastatingly, the site of a fatal resident-on-resident assault that shocked the elder care community. On September 14, 2025, Nina Kravtsov, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, was fatally assaulted inside her room at Seagate — struck repeatedly in the head by a 95-year-old fellow resident with dementia. She died from her injuries.
Prior to this tragedy, state inspectors had cited Seagate for multiple serious deficiencies since 2021, including:
Staffing shortages: A 2024 inspection found the facility "failed to maintain sufficient nursing staff" to meet residents' physical, mental, and psychosocial needs. Units operated with as few as three certified nursing assistants instead of the five required.
Poor dementia care planning: Inspectors documented inadequate care plans for cognitively impaired residents — the very population most at risk for resident-on-resident violence.
Failure to investigate abuse: During a 2022 inspection, Seagate was also cited for "failing to properly investigate and report possible abuse or neglect," including an incident where a resident was found on the floor and later diagnosed with a fractured femur, and a resident-to-resident incident was reported to the state more than 24 hours late, violating the federal two-hour reporting rule.
The facility is the subject of a class action lawsuit for inadequate staffing and was prominently featured in advocacy and media coverage following the Kravtsov tragedy.
Leitner Warywoda PLLC represents the Kravtsov family in pursuing justice for Nina Kravtsov.
Additional NYC Facilities Under DOH Scrutiny
As of early 2026, CMS data identifies several New York City facilities with serious deficiencies and low overall ratings, including facilities in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. These include facilities cited for failure to protect residents from all types of abuse — the most serious categories of deficiency under both federal and state law.
Recent Enforcement Actions: Westchester and Rockland Counties
The DOH enforcement database (covering February 2016 through January 2026) identifies multiple facilities in Westchester and Rockland with documented enforcement histories, including:
Westchester County:
Westchester Center for Rehabilitation & Nursing (Mount Vernon)
Bethel Nursing Home Company Inc. (Ossining)
Andrus On Hudson (Hastings-On-Hudson)
Cedar Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center (Ossining)
Sans Souci Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Yonkers)
Sarah Neuman Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing (Mamaroneck)
Schaffer Extended Care Center (New Rochelle)
Glen Island Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation (New Rochelle)
The Emerald Peek Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Peekskill)
The Enclave at Rye Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Port Chester)
The Knolls (Valhalla)
Yonkers Gardens Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation (Yonkers)
Rockland County:
Northern Manor Geriatric Center Inc. (Nanuet)
Nyack Ridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Valley Cottage)
Tolstoy Foundation Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Valley Cottage)
Families with loved ones in these facilities are encouraged to review inspection records directly through the NYS Health Profiles database and to contact legal counsel if serious injuries or unexplained changes in condition have occurred.
The Regulatory Framework: What Laws Protect Nursing Home Residents in New York?
Nursing home residents in New York are protected by an overlapping web of state and federal law:
Public Health Law § 2803-c: Every resident has the right to receive adequate and appropriate medical care, and to be free from mental and physical abuse and from physical and chemical restraints.
Public Health Law § 2801-d: This critical provision creates a private right of action for nursing home residents whose rights are violated. It allows injured residents and their families to sue for compensatory damages — and where violations are willful or in reckless disregard of residents' rights, punitive damages may be assessed. New York courts have awarded substantial punitive damages under this statute.
10 NYCRR Part 415: New York's comprehensive regulations governing skilled nursing facility operations, covering staffing, supervision, accident prevention, infection control, and resident rights.
42 C.F.R. § 483 (Federal Nursing Home Reform Act): Federal standards applicable to all Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities, including requirements for sufficient staffing, resident dignity, abuse prevention, and quality of care.
Public Health Law § 2895-b: New York's minimum staffing mandate, now actively enforced through civil monetary penalties as of February 2026.
A DOH Statement of Deficiencies finding "Actual Harm" or "Immediate Jeopardy" is powerful evidence of negligence in a civil lawsuit. It is not, by itself, a judgment — but it creates a documented, official record of the facility's failures that can be introduced at trial and used to support motions, expert opinions, and damages claims.
Oversight Failures: A Growing Concern
A state audit released in 2025 by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found that the DOH itself has failed to adequately oversee adult care facilities. The audit found that DOH failed to complete inspections within the required 12-to-18-month timeframe at 70% of the sampled facilities, with some inspections delayed by as much as five years. Three of the state's four regional oversight offices — New York City, Long Island, and Western New York — had significant inspection backlogs.
This is critically important for families: even when a nursing home has a history of violations, regulatory action may lag far behind the harm being inflicted. Waiting for the government to act is not a substitute for legal accountability.
Leitner Warywoda Is Investigating
Leitner Warywoda PLLC is currently investigating claims of neglect, abuse, and serious injuries sustained at nursing home facilities across Nassau, Suffolk, New York City, Westchester, and Rockland Counties.
Our investigations encompass injuries including:
Pressure ulcers (bedsores) and wound infections
Falls resulting in fractures, head injuries, and internal bleeding
Elopement and inadequate supervision
Resident-on-resident assaults
Failure to provide emergency medical care
Medication errors and overmedication
Malnutrition, dehydration, and unexplained weight loss
Sexual abuse and physical assault by staff
Wrongful death
If your loved one suffered a serious injury — or died — in a nursing home in any of these counties, do not wait. Inspection records, incident reports, and medical records must be preserved promptly. The statute of limitations under New York law is two and a half years for medical malpractice and three years for negligence, but evidence can disappear quickly.
Contact Leitner Warywoda PLLC Today
Leitner Warywoda PLLC has recovered over $250 million for injured New Yorkers and their families, including hundreds of nursing home abuse and neglect cases across Long Island, New York City, and the Hudson Valley region. We are trial-ready from day one — and we do not collect a fee unless we win.
Call us today for a free, confidential consultation:📞 (855) LV-LAW-NY🌐 www.nylawinjury.com
Links:
DOH Enforcement Database & Official Sources
NYS Health Profiles – Nursing Home Enforcement Search
CMS Provider Data – Penalties Dataset
ProPublica Nursing Home Inspect – New York
February 2026 Staffing Pen
This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this article. Case results depend on the specific facts and circumstances of each matter.
