After a Town of Tonawanda nursing home worker contracted Covid-19 and died from the virus, her employer should have notified the federal government of the work-related fatality within eight hours, federal officials said.
Instead, the McAuley Residence waited six days before informing the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that licensed practical nurse Joan Neudecker had died from a work-related incident, according to records released by OSHA in response to a Buffalo News Freedom of Information request.
OSHA fined Catholic Health Systems, which owns the nursing home, $11,567 for two related violations. Catholic Health is contesting the violations.
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In response to a second Buffalo News Freedom of Information request, OSHA also provided new details about a $1,928 fine levied on Kaleida Health's Buffalo General Medical Center for its failure to record that two nurses tested positive for the virus. Those violations do not involve deaths, according to OSHA. Kaleida Health is contesting the violations.
Neudecker, the McAuley Residence nurse, is the only nursing home worker in the region known to have died from Covid-19. Before the 60-year-old woman died May 9, she had said she suspected she contracted the virus while working, according to her family.
OSHA is treating her death as work-related:
“ … a licensed practical nurse died on May 9, 2020, after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes Covid-19]. The employer learned of the employee’s death on May 10, 2020, but did not notify OSHA within eight hours. The employer reported the employee’s death to OSHA on May 15, 2020.”
A second violation cites McAuley for failing to record the death in required workplace logs.
The OSHA documents do not identify Neudecker by name, but her job title and date of death match the information in the citation.
“Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Catholic Health’s top priority has been to protect the health and safety of our associates, patients, providers and community. We do not comment on matters involving active legal or regulatory actions,” JoAnn Cavanaugh, spokeswoman for Catholic Health, stated in an email.
Lawrence J. Neudecker, the husband of Joan Neudecker, said he is disappointed Catholic Health is not taking responsibility for the workplace death.
“It was kept all hushed. I’m not satisfied with them,” said the husband, who added that he continues to struggle with grief.
“I sat home alone on Thanksgiving. I haven’t even put up my Christmas tree or Christmas lights because she liked Christmas and we’d do that together,” Lawrence Neudecker said.
Nurses at Buffalo General
OSHA cited Buffalo General Medical Center for failing to maintain logs about work-related illnesses involving two nurses working in different departments who contracted the virus.
The violations are being disputed by Kaleida Health, according to Kaleida spokesman Michael Hughes.
“We disagree strongly with the citation and have filed our notice of contest,” Hughes stated in an email.
In the first violation, OSHA investigators stated a nurse working in a surgical recovery unit had tested positive for the virus on or about April 25 but no record of the infection was made.
The second violation cited a failure to record an emergency room nurse testing positive for the virus on or about Aug. 1. In both cases, according to documents released by OSHA, “the employer was aware of the diagnosis.”
