Failure to Maintain Cleanliness and Temperature Monitoring in Facility and Personal Refrigerators
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure proper cleanliness, temperature monitoring, and food dating in both a dining room refrigerator and personal refrigerators located in resident rooms. Observations revealed that several personal refrigerators contained undated and unlabeled leftover foods, lacked temperature logs, and in some cases, did not have thermometers. One resident's refrigerator was found to be dirty, containing uncovered and undated juice and a spoiled banana. The dining room refrigerator had incomplete temperature logs, with many days missing entries, and was observed to be unclean, with substances and debris present in the freezer and on the ice dispenser. Staff were unclear about who was responsible for monitoring and cleaning these refrigerators, and there was no established cleaning schedule for the dining room refrigerator. Interviews with facility staff, including the kitchen manager and DON, revealed confusion regarding responsibility for monitoring and maintaining personal refrigerators in resident rooms. The facility's policy on refrigerator and freezer maintenance required daily temperature checks and regular cleaning, but did not address personal refrigerators in resident rooms. The lack of adherence to these procedures resulted in improper food storage and sanitation practices, as well as inadequate monitoring of refrigerator temperatures and food expiration dates.