JAMAICA, QUEENS — Over $560,000 worth of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) purchased during the COVID-19 Pandemic by the New York State Department of Health (DOH) for use by the New York State Veterans Home at St. Albans in Jamaica, Queens, was ruined as result of being stockpiled on tarp-covered, weather-exposed pallets in a parking lot outside St. Albans due to a lack of storage space and significant deficiencies in both intra- and inter-agency communication.

These, and additional findings were detailed in a report released today by New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang, who outlined her office’s comprehensive investigation into the issues surrounding DOH and St. Albans’ participation in a statewide “Aggregated Buy” of PPE organized by the New York State Office of General Services (OGS) in late 2020 in anticipation of a feared “third wave” in early 2021.

While acknowledging that the events detailed in the report took place against the difficult backdrop of constantly changing scientific predictions about the spread of the virus and significant logistical challenges, the Inspector General’s investigation revealed that missed opportunities, insufficiencies in recordkeeping, staffing shortages and communication breakdowns both within DOH and with other agencies led to a significant waste of state resources.

“Collaboration is vital to the effective operation of government, especially during times of crisis, including the one we are now facing in accommodating migrant and asylum-seeking communities.” said New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang. “As New York State continues to prioritize public safety and living our shared values by efficiently deploying resources, our report calls for increased and consistent communication to mitigate waste and save lives.”

More specifically, in November 2020, using its rate of PPE consumption from the height of the pandemic as a guide, as was suggested by OGS, but without taking into account on-site storage space, St. Albans ordered over five million units of PPE. While administrators at St. Albans believed this PPE would be delivered monthly starting in December, purchase orders were not able to be submitted by DOH until February 2021. This delay, which was not communicated to St. Albans, resulted in a larger than anticipated, and ultimately not needed, delivery of PPE being made to St. Albans in mid-February 2021, exhausting their storage space. In the months that followed, PPE continued to arrive, and when communication between the various stakeholders with an ability to address the growing storage crisis failed, the PPE was moved to the St. Albans parking lot, where it would slowly decay.

To facilitate the accurate and ongoing exchange of information, particularly during times of crisis, the Inspector General made several recommendations to the NYS Department of Health’s Health Facilities Management (HFM) unit, which has oversight of State Veterans Homes, including:

• Codifying a process to ensure proper communication with the State Veterans Homes it oversees, including memorializing meetings and action items to ensure that all stakeholders, including the Veteran Home administrators and representatives of other relevant DOH subunits, have the same information to facilitate constructive problem-solving;
• Continuing to prioritize hiring for vacancies to lessen the burden on existing employees and provide additional avenues for information flow;
• Incorporating the consideration of facility storage space into all procurement processes;
• Promulgating policies and procedures to ensure proper records are maintained for the tracking of inventory and provide training to involved staff; and
• Ensuring staff awareness of the role of the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) in overseeing the State’s inventory of equipment during emergencies.

Read OIG’s complete report HERE, download included photos HERE, and follow the office’s work @NewYorkStateIG.