Failure to Notify Physician of Critically High Blood Glucose Results
Penalty
No penalty information released
The penalty, as released by CMS, applies to the entire inspection this citation is part of, covering all citations and f-tags issued, not just this specific f-tag. For the complete original report, please refer to the 'Details' section.
Summary
The facility failed to notify the physician of significant abnormal laboratory results for a resident with diagnoses including type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression, and hypertension. Record review revealed that the resident had two critically high blood glucose readings, one at 527 mg/dL and another at 560 mg/dL, both of which exceeded the facility's policy threshold for physician notification (>500 mg/dL). Progress notes did not indicate that the physician was notified of either result. During an interview, an LPN confirmed that it was facility policy to notify a physician when a glucose measurement was over 500 mg/dL. The current policy, as provided by the DON, also required physician notification for glucose levels above 500 mg/dL.