Failure to Provide Dignified Dining Experience During Resident Feeding
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure that two residents were treated with respect and dignity during mealtime assistance. Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) were observed standing while feeding two residents who required partial or moderate assistance with eating, rather than sitting at the residents' level as per facility policy and training. Both CNAs acknowledged in interviews that they were trained to sit while feeding residents but did not do so because there were no available chairs in the dining room at the time. One CNA mentioned that an extra stool was available in the staff break room but was not brought out for use. The Director of Nursing (DON) and the Administrator confirmed that staff are expected to be at the resident's level when providing feeding assistance and recognized that standing could create a dignity issue and make it harder to monitor residents for eating difficulties. The residents involved had significant medical histories, including cerebral palsy with moderate cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease with severe cognitive impairment, and both required assistance with eating as documented in their Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments. Facility policy on dignity, revised in February 2021, states that residents should be provided with a dignified dining experience and be treated with respect and dignity. The failure to follow this policy was directly observed and confirmed through staff interviews, indicating a lapse in maintaining a dignified environment for the residents during meal service.