Bombshell: Upstate New York Hospital Hit With 480 Violations
The New York State Nurses Association is speaking out after a "bombshell report."
New York State Nurses Association Receives Bombshell Report About Albany Medical Center
According to the NYSNA, in late Aug. 2024, the New York State Department of Health issued a staffing deficiency report to Albany Medical Center citing at least 480 staffing violations of the state’s safe staffing law.
Officials say that's the most any hospital has ever received.
"Instead of working with frontline nurses on the hospital’s clinical staffing committee to create corrective action plans to address the staffing crisis, hospital administrators refused to share the report, acknowledge the problem, or involve nurses in efforts to improve staffing- all of which they are required to do by law," the NYSNA stated.
Officials say Albany Med tried to "hide the report." However "frontline nurses" just received a copy of the report months after filing a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain it.
What they found was worse than expected, officials say.
According to the NYSNA, the report confirmed the 480 violations but also revealed that hospital administrators repeatedly failed to address them. The DOH spent nearly six months trying to get the hospital to fix things, and while Albany Med submitted new corrective plans as recently as February 2, 2025, they still fall short of what’s required.
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Top Albany Medical Center officials allegedly at first tried to "downplay" the report. Albany Med’s main “solutions” to the staffing crisis were to rely on expensive temporary travel nurses and reduce patient beds, the NYSNA reports.
“Albany Med executives can no longer deny the staffing crisis they have created and must work immediately to fix it. Albany Med nurses have been speaking out for more than a year to demand hospital executives do more to protect safe patient care," NYSNA President Nancy Hagans.
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Albany Medical Center Responds
The vice president of communications and marketing for Albany Med Health System, Matt Markham, responded to the report.
"A no point during that time was patient care ever compromised, and quality care continued. In addition, we made great strides in our perennial recruitment and retention efforts," Markham said in an email to NYUP. "Our focus now is not on the past, but rather, it is on the care we provide today and in the future."
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Markham also said the hospital's nurse turnover rate of 3 percent is less than the national average.
He notes the hospital hired 300 nurses last year with plans to hire 400 more in 2025.
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32 New York Hospitals Receive A Grade For Patient Safety
Gallery Credit: The Leapfrog Group issued its updated Hospital Safety Grades
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