On August 25, 2025, the New York Attorney General announced that Van Duyn Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Syracuse, New York, and its owners and operators will pay a total of $12 million, including $10 million to directly fund improved resident care and staffing, after an investigation allegedly revealed that two of the operators of the nursing home “received millions of dollars of taxpayer funds meant for resident care, leaving the nursing home severely understaffed. Residents suffered in unsafe conditions, leading to hospitalizations, deaths, and significant trauma.”
As alleged:
Resident Abuse and Neglect
The OAG’s investigation found that Van Duyn’s residents lived in unsafe conditions before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The two individuals operated the nursing home with insufficient staffing, resulting in severe neglect of vulnerable residents, who often had no assistance with basic daily tasks.
- A resident died after Van Duyn failed to properly communicate her care plan to staff, resulting in staff failing to assist her to the bathroom. The resident fell while she was in her room, and her nightgown caught on a door handle, strangling her to death. Nursing home staff were unaware until they later discovered her deceased.
- A resident was found deceased in rigor mortis after Van Duyn failed to appropriately provide care and medication, failed to appropriately assess the resident’s skin upon admission and throughout the resident’s stay, and failed to properly assess the resident after a fall.
- A resident was sent to the hospital after Van Duyn failed to properly monitor and treat their glucose levels.
- A resident was admitted to the hospital with a bacterial infection, bed sores, and dehydration after Van Duyn failed to respond to their rapidly deteriorating condition.
- Multiple residents were inappropriately discharged from Van Duyn and dropped off at a Department of Social Services office without identification, putting them at serious risk of harm.
Financial Fraud
After purchasing the nursing home in 2013, Van Duyn’s owners withdrew tens of millions of dollars for themselves by taking out a mortgage on Van Duyn’s property and charging the nursing home fraudulently inflated rental payments. From 2015 to 2022, the nursing home paid its owners an inflated rent using Medicare and Medicaid funds, resulting in fewer resources available to adequately staff and maintain the facility. The OAG’s investigation also found that the two operators of the nursing home transferred over $2 million to themselves over the same period by fraudulently paying themselves salaries for work, at least some of which they never performed.
The New York Attorney General stated in announcing the settlement: “For years, residents at Van Duyn endured unacceptable neglect that caused traumatic injuries and tragic deaths. We are holding Van Duyn’s owners accountable for these conditions, and ensuring the facility will make all the necessary changes so that its residents get the care they deserve. I will always fight for the dignity and rights of vulnerable New Yorkers and I will continue to go after nursing homes and their owners when they fail to take care of their residents.”
If you or a loved one may have been injured as a result of medical malpractice in a nursing home in New York or in another U.S. state due to a nursing home infection, nursing home fall, nursing home aspiration, nursing home neglect, nursing home negligence, nursing home abuse, nursing home under-staffing, or the nursing home failing to properly care for a vulnerable adult, you should promptly find a New York medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your nursing home medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a nursing home medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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