Failure to Maintain Safe and Sanitary Shared Resident Bathrooms
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors observed that the facility failed to maintain a safe, sanitary, and comfortable environment in shared resident bathrooms. In two separate shared bathrooms, multiple personal care items such as mouthwash, drinking glasses, Wet One wipes, wash basins, bedpans, and urinals were found unlabeled, uncontained, and improperly stored. Items were left on surfaces like paper towel dispensers, vanities, and floors, and a toilet plunger was found uncovered and uncontained next to a toilet. These observations were confirmed by an LPN, who acknowledged that personal items should be labeled and stored in residents' drawers, and that certain items, such as drinking glasses, should not be kept in bathrooms. The residents involved had varying degrees of cognitive and physical impairment, including severe cognitive impairment, dependence on staff for activities of daily living (ADLs), and diagnoses such as dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, metabolic encephalopathy, diabetes, and hemiplegia. The improper storage and lack of labeling of personal care items were directly observed in bathrooms shared by these residents, and staff confirmed that these practices did not meet facility expectations for safe and sanitary storage.