Failure to Provide Appropriate Mechanically Altered Diets
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to provide food prepared in a form designed to meet the individual needs of residents requiring mechanically altered diets. During a lunch service, the dietary staff ran out of the scheduled vegetable, broccoli, and substituted corn for residents on mechanical soft diets. The dietary aide/cook was not aware that regular corn is not suitable for mechanically soft diets, and served it to three residents with orders for mechanical soft diets. The dietician later confirmed that only creamed corn would be acceptable for such diets, not regular corn. The residents affected included individuals with severe to moderate cognitive deficits, swallowing difficulties, and risks for nutritional deficits. Their care plans and physician orders specified the need for mechanical soft diets due to conditions such as dysphagia and Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, there was a delay in updating dietary orders following a change in one resident's diet texture, as communication from speech therapy to nursing was not transcribed in a timely manner. The facility's policy required that therapeutic diets be prescribed and specified by the attending physician, but this was not consistently followed.