Failure to Respond to Resident Call Lights Within Policy Timeframe
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to provide adequate nursing staff to ensure timely response to resident call lights, as evidenced by multiple instances where call lights were not answered within the facility's policy requirement of 15 minutes. Clinical record reviews and interviews with three residents, all with intact cognition and various medical diagnoses such as neurogenic bladder, multiple sclerosis, cancer, coronary artery disease, and others, revealed that call lights frequently remained unanswered for over fifteen minutes, with one instance documented at nearly an hour. Residents consistently reported watching the clock and experiencing significant delays in receiving assistance after activating their call lights. Staff interviews confirmed that call lights often took longer than the expected response time, with staff acknowledging that they could not always guarantee a response within fifteen minutes. The facility's call light logs corroborated these reports, showing several instances of call lights being active for 16 to 48 minutes. The facility's policy requires staff to respond to call lights within 15 minutes, but this standard was not met for at least three residents during the review period.