Van Duyn Center: Dignity Violations in Resident Care - NY
The resident, identified in the inspection report as Resident 170, was continent of urine. Staff knew it. The inspection, completed April 18, 2025, found the resident was wearing an incontinence brief regardless, and inspectors rated the violation as causing actual harm to some residents.
The nurse practitioner who spoke with inspectors did not soften what that means. Being left in a wet incontinence brief, she said, carries real medical consequences: urinary tract infections, skin breakdown. But she went further. Research showed, she told inspectors, that being left wet in a brief "had a huge negative impact on mental health." Putting Resident 170 in a brief, having them wet themselves, and leaving them without a clean lifting pad could cause psychosocial harm. That was her word. Psychosocial.
The lifting pad problem ran alongside the brief problem. When a resident needed a lifting pad to be transferred and one was not available, a licensed practical nurse unit manager told inspectors, that resident would be confined to bed. Isolated. If the pad was soiled and smelled of urine, she said, it could make the resident feel horrible. Resident 170 was in exactly that situation.
The LPN unit manager was direct about the brief itself. Continent residents should not be wearing incontinence briefs unless it was their own preference, she said, because it was a dignity issue and it was embarrassing. If Resident 170 did not have their own underwear, the social worker should have been notified to get some. Nobody had done that.
Inspectors noted staff were unsure whether Resident 170 was being toileted during the day at all. The unit manager said residents who could use a bedpan should be put back to bed, placed on the bedpan, and then returned to their wheelchair. When a resident was wet, they should be changed. Not left.
What makes the record here uncomfortable is not that the staff didn't know the right answer. They did. The LPN unit manager knew continent residents shouldn't be in briefs. The nurse practitioner knew being left wet causes infections and mental health harm. The knowledge was present. The care was not.
Van Duyn Center is a large facility. It sits on West Seneca Turnpike on Syracuse's south side and operates under a state provider identification number that has accumulated inspection history over many years. The April 2025 inspection covered health standards under New York's nursing home regulations.
The violation was cited under state health code. Inspectors classified the level of harm as actual harm, not potential, not a paperwork deficiency. Something happened to Resident 170 that should not have happened, and the people who worked in that building knew it shouldn't have happened while it was happening.
The nurse practitioner told inspectors that no resident should be left in a wet incontinence brief. The word "no" is doing real work in that sentence. Not "residents should generally be changed promptly" or "staff should make efforts to toilet continent residents." No resident. The standard she described was absolute, and Resident 170 fell outside it.
Continent people placed in incontinence briefs and left wet do not always have a way to say so that gets heard. They may not be able to reach a call button. They may have said something and had it go unrecorded. The inspection report does not say how long Resident 170 was wet, or how many times this happened, or whether anyone came when called. It says the harm was actual. It says more than one resident was affected.
The facility's plan to correct the deficiency was not included in the inspection materials. For information on that plan, CMS directs the public to contact the nursing home or the state survey agency directly.
Resident 170 was continent. That should have been the beginning and the end of the story.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Van Duyn Center For Rehabilitation and Nursing from 2025-04-18 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
Corrections: We strive for accuracy in everything we publish. If you believe any fact in this article is incorrect, please contact us with details, and we will review and correct it promptly.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: October 26, 2026 · Our methodology
Van Duyn Center For Rehabilitation And Nursing in SYRACUSE, NY was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 18, 2025.
The resident, identified in the inspection report as Resident 170, was continent of urine.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.