The former owner and former manager of the Focus Otsego nursing home – now called Centers Home Health Care under new ownership – have both pleaded guilty to second-degree endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced Wednesday that Joseph Zupnik, the former owner and operator, and Daniel Herman, the former high managerial agent for the facility, have both pleaded guilty to the charges.
As part of their guilty pleas, Zupnik and Herman admitted that between May 28, 2016 and June 1, 2016, they recklessly acted in a manner likely to be injurious to the physical, mental or moral welfare of a person unable to care for themselves because of physical disability.
The two men also admitted that they failed to provide sufficient staff to provide the necessary care to one resident at Focus Otsego, which included nutrition, medications and incontinence care.
Underwood says the two men and their corporation, CCRN, endangered a 94-year-old resident who was left in a recliner in a common area of the nursing home for approximately 41 hours. Certified nurse aids also did not provide the care that was required in the patient’s care plan, and also didn’t conduct neurological checks that were ordered, but instead wrote in her medical records that they had been performed.
Four employees of the former Focus Otsego were previously convicted for their roles in neglecting the 94-year-old patient.
Zupkin and Herman are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 10.
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