If you’ve been following the news out of Rochester this month, you’ve likely seen the story: Waterview Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, once home to more than 160 residents, has been forced to close after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) terminated its Medicare and Medicaid agreement effective August 25, 2026. The facility had been designated a federal “Special Focus Facility” since 2023 — a label reserved for nursing homes that have shown a persistent, documented failure to meet basic health and safety standards. Over the past few years, state records show the facility racked up hundreds of citations and complaints, was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the New York State Department of Health, and was the subject of years of local news investigations into resident care — including reports of residents left lying in their own waste for hours, life-threatening bedsores, and, in 2022, the criminal conviction of an employee for raping a resident.
For families with loved ones in a nursing home this news is more than a headline. It’s a reminder of a pattern we see far too often: the facilities we trust to care for our aging or disabled family members don’t always live up to that trust. Unobserved, facilities can end up failing residents for years before anyone intervenes. Often, the warning signs are there long before a facility makes the news.
The attorneys at Lacy Katzen LLP have decades of experience helping families with exactly these kinds of cases. This latest nursing home closure provides an opportunity to talk about what families can do to protect a loved one right now, and what families can do to hold a facility accountable when the damage has already been done.
Nursing Home Residents Have Legal Rights Under New York Law
Many families don’t realize that New York gives nursing home residents a specific, powerful legal tool: Public Health Law § 2801-d. This statute creates a private right of action for any nursing home resident (or their estate) who is injured as a result of a facility’s failure to comply with state or federal regulations setting minimum standards for care. In plain terms, it means a facility can be held civilly liable — separate and apart from any state fines or federal sanctions — when its negligence, neglect, or abuse causes harm.
That distinction matters because state and federal enforcement actions, like the ones that led to Waterview’s closure, don’t compensate the families affected. Fines are paid to the government. A civil claim under § 2801-d, by contrast, can result in compensation for the resident or their family, along with statutory attorney’s fees, and even punitive damages.
Common signs that a nursing home may be violating care standards include:
- Unexplained bedsores (pressure ulcers), especially at advanced stages
- Dehydration, malnutrition, or sudden, unexplained weight loss
- Frequent falls or unexplained injuries
- Medication errors or over-sedation
- Poor hygiene, soiled bedding, or residents left unattended for long periods
- Sudden changes in behavior, withdrawal, or signs of fear around certain staff
- Unexplained hospitalizations or a marked decline in a resident’s condition
- Understaffing that you can see for yourself on a visit — call bells that go unanswered, residents visibly waiting for help
If you’re noticing any of these signs in a nursing home, you should document what you see and ask direct questions about the care your loved one is receiving. If the answers aren’t adding up, you should contact an experienced personal injury attorney.
How Lacy Katzen, LLP Approaches These Cases
Nursing home neglect and abuse cases are different from a typical personal injury claim. The injuries often unfold over weeks, months, or even years rather than in a single incident. The medical records are voluminous and highly technical. There can be more than one responsible party. Here’s how we help families prosecute a nursing home case:
- Secure the records. We help obtain medical records and identify whether a viable claim exists. Not every bad outcome is the result of neglect, negligence, or abuse. A key first step in any nursing home negligence case is determining whether your loved one’s injuries were preventable. The medical records are crucial to making that determination.
An experienced nursing home injury attorney can help you obtain records early, and help preserve other key pieces of evidence. Acting early can also help in preserving care records, staffing logs, incident reports, and even physical evidence before it can be lost, altered, or discarded.
- Review the evidence. Once medical records are secured, we can review them in detail. These cases often turn on the fine print — nursing notes, medication administration records, care plans, treatment-administration records, and other records generated by the nursing home related to your loved one’s care. We can evaluate the full picture: the resident’s diagnosis and care plan, staffing levels, prior citations against the facility, and whether the standard of care was met.
- Coordinate expert witnesses. Nursing home cases rely on testimony from expert doctors and nurses to establish what the nursing home should have done, what the nursing home failed to do, and the harms caused by those failures. We know which experts to call and when to call them.
- Pursue fair compensation. Whether through negotiated settlement or litigation, our goal is to hold the responsible parties accountable and secure compensation that reflects the harm done.
If You Have Concerns About a Loved One’s Care
Whether your family member was a resident at Waterview Heights or another facility in the Rochester area, you don’t have to wait for a state investigation or a news story to get answers. If your loved one has suffered a serious injury, it’s worth having a conversation with an experienced personal injury attorney who handles these cases regularly. There’s no cost or obligation to find out where things stand.
Contact Lacy Katzen LLP today for a free, confidential consultation. We’ll review what you know, help you understand your rights under New York law, and, if there’s a claim to pursue, walk you through what comes next.
