Failure to Provide Required Evening Snacks Between Meals
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to provide nutritional snacks to residents when meals were scheduled more than 14 hours apart, as required. On one unit, dinner was served at 5:00 PM and breakfast at 7:35 AM, exceeding the 14-hour interval. Residents reported not receiving evening snacks, and review of food and resident council meeting minutes confirmed these reports. Observations showed that only a limited number of individually labeled snacks were delivered with dinner trays, and no additional snacks were available on the unit. Staff confirmed that only these labeled snacks were provided, and there were not enough snacks for all residents who required them. Further investigation revealed that some staff, in the absence of facility-provided snacks, brought in their own snacks for residents, which was not approved by the facility administration or the speech therapist. The speech therapist emphasized that all snacks should be approved for residents' specific dietary and safety needs. Documentation showed discrepancies between the number of snacks delivered and the number of residents documented as having received snacks, indicating that not all residents had access to appropriate evening snacks as required.