Failure to Suspend Staff After Alleged Abuse
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to protect a resident from alleged abuse by staff, as required by its Abuse/Neglect Prevention Program policy. According to the policy, any staff member accused of abuse is to be immediately suspended pending investigation. However, after a resident with multiple diagnoses, including emphysema, chronic pulmonary edema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hemiplegia, hemiparesis, dementia, and hypertension, alleged that a CNA shoved a neck pillow behind her head, the accused CNA continued to work and was not suspended. Documentation showed that the CNA worked the same day as the alleged incident and even completed a double shift the following day. Further, law enforcement records indicated that the CNA was still assigned to the resident nearly a month later. Interviews revealed that the CNA was aware of the resident's accusation and had another CNA accompany her when providing care to the resident. The Administrator stated that she did not initially consider the incident to be abuse and believed that the facility policy only required reassignment, not suspension, of the accused staff member. This series of actions and inactions resulted in the facility not following its own policy for handling abuse allegations, thereby failing to ensure the resident was protected from potential further abuse during the investigation.