Van Duyn Center: Staff Phone Use During Resident Care - NY
The facility's own Director of Nursing confirmed it was a known problem.
Inspectors documented staff with phones and earbuds during the survey and noted that certified nurse aides were not being told to put them away. Licensed practical nurses, who were expected to correct the behavior, were not doing so consistently. Staff were swearing, yelling, and using inappropriate language within earshot of residents.
The Director of Nursing, interviewed on April 18 at 1:44 p.m., said the facility had been actively trying to address the earbud problem. Staff were not supposed to have earbuds or phones on the floor, she said, citing resident privacy concerns under federal health privacy law. She described the behavior plainly: it could make residents feel not heard.
That phrase, "not heard," carries particular weight in a nursing home setting. Residents in long-term care often cannot easily summon help, reposition themselves, or communicate distress without a staff member paying attention. An aide with earbuds in and a phone in hand is, functionally, somewhere else.
The Director of Nursing also said staff were not allowed to eat while residents were eating, and that she did not expect staff to be in break rooms during that time, since their job was to be caring for residents. Staff received a 15-minute break and a 30-minute lunch break, and those breaks were not to overlap with resident mealtimes.
The gap between policy and practice was the finding. The facility knew what the rules were. The Director of Nursing could articulate them clearly and specifically. And yet inspectors arrived and found earbuds in ears and phones in hands on the floor and in the dining room.
Inspectors classified the violation as causing minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and noted that few residents were affected. That classification reflects the regulatory framework's lowest tier of severity. It does not mean the conduct was trivial.
Mealtimes in nursing homes are among the most important windows of the day. They are when staff observe whether a resident is eating, whether they are having difficulty swallowing, whether they seem confused or in pain or withdrawn. An aide wearing earbuds during a meal is not observing. A staff member scrolling a phone in the dining room is not watching. The inspection report noted the behavior was considered disrespectful, and the Director of Nursing used the word "rude."
Van Duyn Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing is a large facility on the southwestern edge of Syracuse. The inspection was conducted on April 18, 2025.
The Director of Nursing said the facility "combatted" the earbud issue. That word suggests an ongoing effort, not a resolved one. Inspectors arrived and found the problem still present.
What the report does not say is whether any staff member was disciplined, whether the LPNs who failed to correct the behavior faced any consequence, or whether residents or their families had complained. Those details are not in the inspection record.
What is in the record is a Director of Nursing who knew exactly what was happening, knew exactly why it was wrong, and described an environment where the rules existed but were not being followed on the floor where residents live.
The residents eating in that dining room, unable to get up and leave, unable to choose different caregivers, sitting across from staff who were somewhere else entirely, did not have that option.
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.
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Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: October 28, 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 facility's own Director of Nursing confirmed it was a known problem.
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.