Failure to Immediately Report Allegation of Verbal Abuse
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to follow its abuse prevention policy by not immediately reporting an allegation of verbal abuse made by a resident. The resident, who had multiple diagnoses including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral vascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and a right below the knee amputation, informed a CNA (V4) that another CNA (V3) had told the resident to 'shut up' multiple times during care. V4 recognized this as verbal abuse and advised the resident to report it to his sister or a manager, but did not report the allegation himself. V4 stated that he refrained from reporting the incident because he did not know V3 and was concerned about possible repercussions. The administrator (V1), who is also the abuse coordinator, confirmed that staff are expected to immediately report any abuse allegations to either himself or the DON. The facility's abuse prevention policy requires employees to report any suspected or observed abuse immediately to the administrator or an immediate supervisor, who must then report it to the administrator. In this case, the required immediate reporting did not occur.