Failure to Follow Food Handling and Hand Hygiene Standards During Meal Service
Penalty
Summary
Staff failed to adhere to professional standards for food service safety during meal service, as observed over two days. Multiple staff members, including the Dietary Manager, LPNs, CNAs, and a cook, were seen touching the tops of plates and making direct contact with resident food while serving meals. Staff were also observed not performing hand hygiene after making direct contact with residents or switching between assisting different residents with eating. In several instances, food that had been touched by staff was not replaced and was consumed by residents. Interviews with staff confirmed awareness of the facility's expectations and policies, which direct staff to avoid touching eating surfaces, sanitize hands after resident contact, and replace food if direct contact occurs. Despite this, staff acknowledged lapses in following these procedures, such as not sanitizing hands between feeding different residents and not avoiding contact with food. The facility's policy on food handling and glove use requires hand sanitization and glove use when direct contact with food is necessary, but these standards were not consistently followed during the observed meal services.