Absolut Ctr Endicott: Aide Bent Resident's Fingers - NY
That is what inspectors found at Absolut Center for Nursing and Rehab at Endicott, a long-term care facility in New York's Southern Tier, following a complaint investigation that stretched from late April into late May 2026.
The incident happened on the night of April 18, 2026. The aide identified in the inspection report as Certified Nurse Aide #4 clocked in at 3:12 that afternoon and was still on the floor past 3:00 the following morning. At some point during that shift, while providing care to a resident the report identifies only as Resident #1, something went wrong, and a coworker watched it happen.
Certified Nurse Aide #3, who witnessed the incident, told investigators what they saw: the resident was not agitated during care, just fidgety. Aide #4 grabbed the resident's wrists and used them to hit the resident in the face with the resident's own hands. Then Aide #4 bent the resident's fingers backward until the resident said the word "uncle." When Aide #3 asked what Aide #4 was doing, the response was three words: "I got this."
Aide #3 said nothing to a supervisor that night. They explained, during an interview on April 27, that Aide #4 had yelled at them and at other staff before. They were worried about retaliation. Their plan was to wait for their unit manager, who was not scheduled until April 20, and report it then. That is what they did. Two days after the resident's fingers were bent backward, Aide #3 told the manager.
The facility suspended Aide #3 for not reporting it sooner.
What happened in the hours between the incident and that April 20 report makes the timeline more complicated. On April 19, the day after the incident, Aide #3 told a second coworker, Certified Nurse Aide #7, what they had witnessed. According to Aide #7's account given to inspectors on May 27, Aide #3 described seeing another aide holding Resident #1's hands tightly, bending their fingers, and making the resident say "uncle." Aide #7's response was to tell Aide #3 to report it Monday morning.
Monday morning. The incident had happened Saturday night.
Aide #7 did not report it themselves. During a later interview, Aide #7 acknowledged they should have reported the allegation immediately. They said they had since been retrained.
The sequence of who knew what, and when, became a thread inspectors kept pulling. When Aide #3 was first interviewed, they did not mention having told Aide #7 about the incident at all. When Aide #7 was interviewed on April 23, their account of when they learned about it conflicted with what they had written in a statement obtained on April 20. Aide #3 was brought back in and asked why they had left out the conversation with Aide #7. They said they were upset and hadn't known what to do, and had told Aide #7 because of that. They said they hadn't told anyone else. Inspectors educated Aide #3 about the investigative process and told them that if they had reported the incident to any other staff member, the facility needed to know immediately.
The facility tried to reach Aide #4 for an interview on April 28 and again on May 21. Both times, they got no answer.
The administrator spoke with inspectors on April 28. The investigation, the administrator said, was inconclusive. It came down to one aide's word against another's. The resident had no injuries and was at their baseline. What the administrator said next is worth reading carefully: they terminated Aide #4 not because the abuse allegation was substantiated, but because interviews with staff revealed that Aide #4 was a bully toward coworkers, and the facility felt the aide had the potential to abuse others.
The resident's fingers had been bent backward until they said a word. The facility's own conclusion was that this could not be proven. The aide was fired anyway, for bullying colleagues.
Aide #3 and Aide #7 were both suspended for failing to report the incident on time.
The Medical Director, interviewed on May 27, said staff were expected to report abuse immediately because it was serious and needed to be addressed right away. The Medical Director said they had discussed the incident with the facility and understood the witnessing aide had delayed reporting because they questioned what they had seen. The Medical Director's view was unambiguous: the witnessing staff should have reported it immediately.
There is a word for what Aide #3 said they witnessed, and it is not a word the facility's investigation was willing to apply with certainty. Inspectors cited the facility under New York Code 415.4(b)(3), which governs the protection of residents from abuse. The level of harm was assessed as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and the number of residents affected was listed as few.
What the inspection report does not resolve, and cannot, is what the resident experienced in that room. The report says the resident was not injured and was at their baseline. It does not say what the resident said, or whether anyone asked. It does not name them. It records that they were fidgety during care, that their wrists were grabbed, that their own hands were used to hit their own face, and that their fingers were bent until a word came out of their mouth.
The aide who did that clocked out at 3:03 in the morning.
Aide #3 waited until Monday. Aide #7 told them to. The facility called it inconclusive. The retraining was in process. The forms were filed.
The resident, whose name appears nowhere in the report, said "uncle."
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Absolut Ctr For Nursing & Rehab Endicott L L C from 2026-05-27 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.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: August 12, 2026 · Our methodology
ABSOLUT CTR FOR NURSING & REHAB ENDICOTT L L C in ENDICOTT, NY was cited for violations during a health inspection on May 27, 2026.
The incident happened on the night of April 18, 2026.
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.