Failure to Provide Hearing Aids to Resident
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure that a resident with highly impaired hearing received proper assistive devices to maintain their hearing abilities. The resident, who had a Physician's order to use hearing aids for both ears, was not provided with their hearing aids daily, and the hearing aids were not recharged as required. The facility's policy recommended charging the hearing aids every night, but this was not consistently done. The resident, who had moderately impaired cognition, was observed without hearing aids, and their family member reported this issue to the staff. The resident expressed difficulty in communicating without the hearing aids. The deficiency was attributed to a failure in transcribing the Physician's order for the hearing aids onto the Medication and Treatment Administration Records, which led to the nursing staff not being aware of the need to recharge and apply the hearing aids. The overnight nurse assigned to the resident was unaware of the hearing aids until informed by the Registered Nurse Unit Manager. The Director of Nursing Services acknowledged the oversight and stated that the order for the hearing aids was not transcribed due to unexplained technical issues, resulting in the resident not receiving the necessary assistance to maintain their hearing abilities.
Plan Of Correction
Plan of Correction: Approved January 17, 2025 F 685 – Device to Maintain Hearing The following plan of correction is submitted in accordance with applicable law and regulation and for continued Medicare/Medicaid certification and does not constitute an admission of fault on the part of the facility. A) Immediate Corrective Action for Resident found to be affected by the deficient practice: a) For Resident #59 – the hearing aids were immediately charged and inserted for use on 12/15/2024. b) The Treatment Administration Record (TAR) was updated to include the application and removal of the hearing aids as well as placing them to charge at hour of sleep. B) Identification of other Residents having the potential to be affected by the deficient practice: All residents with hearing aides have the potential to be affected by this deficient practice. An immediate audit was conducted of all residents utilizing hearing aids to ensure they were charged or in place. There were no negative findings. An audit tool was developed to identify all Residents with a hearing device and type. Utilizing this list, the Unit Manager will ensure the following: a) A physician’s order is in place that includes the application, removal and charging of device, if applicable. b) The Treatment Administration Record (TAR) is updated to reflect the physician’s order. c) The care plan and CNA task is updated to reflect same. C) Systemic Changes to ensure the deficient practice will not recur: The facility’s policy and procedure titled “Hearing Aid: Rechargeable Type” was reviewed and found to be in compliance. All licensed nursing staff will be educated regarding the policy “Hearing Aid: Rechargeable Type”, in addition to how to transcribe the order in the Treatment Administration Record. Education will be verified by posttests or return demonstration to ensure education retention. Person responsible: Staff Educator D) QA – Monitor of the deficient practice: The Nurse Managers/Designee will have the responsibility of auditing all residents with a rechargeable hearing aid on a daily basis x 1 week; then weekly x 3 months; to ascertain compliance with this policy. Any negative findings will be reported to the Assistant Director of Nursing for follow up and report to the QAPI committee. The Assistant Director of Nursing is responsible for the correction of this deficiency. Date of correction: 02/18/2025