Failure to Provide Required Assistance with Eating
Penalty
Summary
Resident 7, who has diagnoses including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, underweight status, blindness in one eye, contracture of the left hand, and dysphagia, was care planned to require extensive assistance with meals due to her inability to verbalize needs and significant self-care deficits. The care plan specified that all needs must be anticipated and met, and that the resident required one-on-one assistance during meals. Facility policy also required that residents unable to perform activities of daily living independently receive necessary services to maintain good nutrition. Despite these requirements, observation revealed that Resident 7 was left to eat her pureed meal without assistance, using her hands due to her visual impairment and contracture, and at times not eating at all. Staff only provided assistance after approximately ten minutes. Interviews with the Infection Preventionist and the DON confirmed that the resident could not appropriately eat pureed foods with her hands and that her care plan required extensive assistance, which was not provided during the observed meal.