Communications regarding outbreak of illness at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation.
Patrick Duff made this OPRA request to New Jersey Department of Health, Division of Epidemiology, Environmental, and Occupational Health This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear New Jersey Department of Health, Division of Epidemiology, Environmental, and Occupational Health,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
All email communications and documents regarding the outbreak of Coronavirus at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in December of 2019 where 11 children were sickened and 1 adult. The outbreak was reported on December 18th of 2019 and was declared over on January 3rd 2020. I want the information on the individual who worked at the facility who tested positive for the virus as well.
Yours faithfully,
Patrick Duff
March 24, 2020
Patrick Duff
Patrick Duff <[OPRA #10365 email]>
Dear Mr. Duff:
The Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health received your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request below. The request is improper and overbroad in that it is nonspecific as to the records requested and would require the custodian to conduct research and exercise discretion to identify potentially responsive records. Without waiving this and other available objections to and exemptions from disclosure, and in an effort to assist you, I advise that no outbreak of "Coronavirus at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in December of 2019 where 11 children were sickened and 1 adult" occurred.
If your request for access to a government record has been denied or unfilled within the seven (7) business days required by law, you have a right to challenge the decision by the Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health to deny access. At your option, you may either institute a proceeding in the Superior Court of New Jersey or file a complaint with the Government Records Council (GRC) by completing the Denial of Access Complaint Form. You may contact the GRC by toll-free telephone at 866-850-0511, by mail at P.O. Box 819, Trenton, NJ, 08625, by e-mail at [email address], or at their web site at www.state.nj.us/grc. The GRC can also answer other questions about the law. All questions regarding complaints filed in Superior Court should be directed to the Court Clerk in your County.
Sincerely,
Susan Way
Records Custodian
Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any release, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the author immediately by replying to this message and delete the original message.
Dear DOH-deeohcustodian,
I received your denial and want to clarify/modify my request accordingly. Please produce all email communications from December 1, 2019 to January 31, 2020 regarding the coronavirus outbreak at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation (which is renamed the Phoenix Center for Rehabilitation and Pediatrics on January 1, 2020). Email inboxes and outboxes to search: Dr. Christina Tan, Gary Ludwig, Commissioner Judith M. Persichilli, Andrea Martinez-Mejia, and Donna Leusner.
For your reference, this is the coronavirus outbreak that I am referring to, which led to 10 sickened children and 1 sickened elderly person:
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/h...
I am asking you to conduct a search of those email boxes for the time frame for communications relating to that outbreak. You should know how to search and locate such emails, but obvious keywords include: Wanaque, Phoenix Center, and Coronavirus.
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Duff
Mr. Duff: Per your article, there was no coronavirus outbreak in 2018 that killed 11 children. It was adenovirus.
"...was different from the adenovirus that caused the deaths of 11 ventilator-dependent children 15 months ago and inspired a new law aimed to reduce deaths from respiratory outbreaks in long-term care facilities. "
Susan Way
Records Custodian
Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any release, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the author immediately by replying to this message and delete the original message.
Dear DOH-deeohcustodian,
Here is what the article says, and it is very clear.
""Everyone experiencing the cold-like symptoms is back to normal now," said Natasha Islam, who became the nursing home administrator in late October. The facility, which had been called the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, has been sold and was renamed the Phoenix Center for Rehabilitation and Pediatrics on Jan. 1.
The latest outbreak was first reported to state officials on Dec. 18, when four children received confirmed diagnoses of coronavirus, a respiratory virus that typically causes symptoms of the common cold, said Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department."
Now please still provide me with the requested documents.
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Duff
Dear DOH-deeohcustodian,
The outbreak was in December of 2019, not 2018.
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Duff
Mr Duff: My apology. I misread your request. I will investigate and respond.
Susan Way
Records Custodian
Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any release, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the author immediately by replying to this message and delete the original message.
Dear DOH-deeohcustodian,
I am just cheking on the status of this request?
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Duff
April 9, 2020
Patrick Duff
Email: [OPRA #10365 email]
Dear Mr. Duff:
The Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health (EEOH) received your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request below. Additional time is needed to respond to this request. The same staff that may have records are the staff now responding to COVID-19 in New Jersey. OPRA allows custodians extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Specifically, OPRA states that, “the requestor shall be advised by the custodian when the record can be made available. If the record is not made available by that time, access shall be deemed denied.” Your request requires an extension of time until April 30, 2020.
Susan Way
Records Custodian
Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any release, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the author immediately by replying to this message and delete the original message.
Dear Mr. Duff:
The Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health (EEOH) received your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request below. Additional time is needed to respond to this request. The same staff that may have records are the staff now responding to COVID-19 in New Jersey. OPRA allows custodians extensions of time pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.i. Specifically, OPRA states that, “the requestor shall be advised by the custodian when the record can be made available. If the record is not made available by that time, access shall be deemed denied.” Your request requires an extension of time until May 17, 2020. Thank you for your patience during this time.
Susan Way
Records Custodian for the EEOH
Dear Mr. Duff:
This will respond to the referenced request for government records. The government records law, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., and other laws, oblige me to deny the referenced request.
The government records law excludes from the definition of a “government record,” at N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1:
1. Records containing information in which an individual might have a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1;
2. Records containing information “concerning individuals… relating to medical, psychiatric, or psychological history, diagnosis, treatment or evaluation,” Executive Order 26 §4b1 ( McGreevey, 2002);
3. Records “concerning morbidity, mortality and reportable diseases of named persons required to be made, maintained or kept by any State or local government agency,” Executive Order 9, §2c (Hughes, 1963).
Further, documents of this type are exempt from disclosure under N.J.A.C. 8:57-1.14, which provides that reports made to the Department regarding communicable disease shall be used only by the local health department, the Department and such other agencies as may be designated by the Commissioner.
Based on the foregoing reasons, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of responsive records and am obliged to deny your request.
Sincerely,
Steven Bors
Records Custodian for the Department of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health.
SB:djs
Patrick Duff left an annotation ()
The refusal of the requested communication has resulted in a civil suit filed by CJ Griffin on behalf of Patrick Duff in Mercer County court. Duff V Deparment of Health. This is the second open case that Duff has in Mercer County for OPRA Violations.