Four nurses at Woodmere rehab covered up poor patient monitoring, says state attorney general

Four nurses at a Woodmere rehabilitation facility were accused Wednesday of altering records to cover up failures in monitoring a disabled patient, injured in two falls in his room, according to state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

When a state health investigator began looking into a complaint about the patient's care, records at the Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center were changed to inaccurately reflect checks on the patient every half-hour on June 4 and 5, 2012, as ordered by the man's doctor, state officials said.

The patient, 50, was at risk of falls due to end-stage renal failure, heart disease, muscle weakness and other ailments, officials said. On June 4, he fell and the resulting head cuts were closed with staples, authorities said. The next day, he was found on the floor with respiratory failure and fluid in his lungs, they said.

Riadel Manzano, 43, of East Williston; Rodel Placino, 44, of Hewlett; Marrianne Borromeo, 41, of Woodside, Queens; and Benetia Johnson, 25, of St. Albans, Queens, were each arraigned on charges of first degree falsifying business records and given a $300 cash bail.

Manzano, the director of nursing services at the time, ordered Borromeo to "fill in the gaps" in the patient log although she had not worked those days, the complaint said. She told Johnson to "go home" to avoid the health department investigator, court papers said.

She was also charged with first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and tampering with physical evidence.

Manzano's attorney, Alex Bateman Jr., said she denies the charges. He said the accusations were from "people who are motivated to mislead to protect themselves."

The other attorneys and the center did not return calls.