Failure to Meet Nurse Aide Staffing Ratios
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to meet the required nurse aide to resident ratios on two occasions, as evidenced by a review of staffing records. On January 19, 2025, during the night shift, the facility provided 5.07 nurse aides instead of the required 5.67 for a census of 85 residents. Similarly, on January 21, 2025, the night shift had 7.07 nurse aides instead of the required 7.73 for the same census. No additional higher-level staff were available to compensate for this deficiency, leading to a failure in maintaining the mandated staffing levels.
Plan Of Correction
The facility cannot retroactively correct the past C.N.A Ratios. Moving forward, the facility will continue to make good faith effort to schedule staff to meet or exceed the mandated ratios of one NA to 10 residents on day shift; one NA to 11 residents on evening shift and one NA to 15 residents on night shift. The facility will make all good-faith efforts to utilize both internal and external resources to meet or exceed the staffing ratios. The facility contracts with agencies to supply aides to meet requirements, but call offs and no-shows result in unmet ratios. The facility is working to hire and train staff to achieve the minimum staffing ratios for nurse aides. The facility offers bonuses to staff to encourage staff to pick up additional shifts. To prevent this from reoccurring, the RDCS re-educated the NHA, DON, and Scheduler on the updated staffing regulations in relation to the minimum ratio of one NA to 10 residents on days, one NA to 11 residents on evenings, and one NA to 15 residents on nights. The staffing is reviewed each day for the subsequent day(s) by the NHA and/or DON to ensure adequate staff to meet or exceed the minimum ratios. Needs are posted each week for internal staff to pick up extra shifts as well as posted with outside agencies. To monitor and maintain ongoing compliance, the NHA/designee will audit deployment sheets to ensure the facility staffing meets or exceeds the minimum NA ratios. Audits will be completed 5x weekly x4 weeks; 3x weekly x1 month and weekly x1 month. The results of the audits will be forwarded to the facility QAPI committee for further review and recommendations.