Failure to Remove Expired Food from Resident Refrigerator
Penalty
Summary
Facility staff failed to follow the established policy regarding the weekly inspection and removal of expired food items from residents' personal refrigerators. According to the facility's policy, staff are required to check individual food items in residents' refrigerators weekly and promptly discard any expired items. During an observation, three unopened nutritional shakes with an expiration date of 9/26/2022 were found in a resident's personal refrigerator, indicating that the required weekly checks were not performed as outlined in the policy. The resident involved had multiple diagnoses, including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Respiratory Failure, Right Heart Failure, Alzheimer's Disease, and Dementia, and was assessed as having moderate cognitive impairment. Interviews with staff revealed uncertainty about who was responsible for checking the refrigerators, with the LPN unsure of the process and the DON stating that housekeeping was primarily responsible for weekly checks. The DON confirmed that the expired nutritional shakes should have been discarded according to facility policy.