Failure to Timely Report Abuse Incident as Required by Policy
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to implement its policies and procedures for the timely reporting of a reasonable suspicion of a crime, specifically regarding an incident of abuse between two residents. One resident with dementia and Parkinson's disease struck another resident, who also had dementia and encephalopathy, in the activity room. This event was witnessed by staff and reported to the DON on the same day. However, the required 2-hour notification to the state agency was not submitted until the following morning, exceeding the mandated reporting timeframe. The DON stated in an interview that she believed the facility had 24 hours to report abuse incidents to the state unless the incident caused serious injury, which led to the delay in reporting. Facility policy, however, required that all abuse allegations be reported to the state agency within 2 hours. The deficiency was identified during a complaint investigation and was based on the facility's failure to follow its own abuse reporting policy and federal requirements.