Failure to Immediately Report Abuse Allegation to Administration
Penalty
Summary
Facility staff failed to follow the established Abuse Prevention Program policy, which requires immediate reporting of any incident, allegation, or suspicion of abuse to the administrator. In this case, a resident with diagnoses including dementia, heart failure, mood disturbance, anxiety, and psychotic disturbance accused a CNA of sexual assault while being assisted to bed. The CNA immediately informed two other CNAs of the allegation, but none of the staff reported the incident to administration as required. Instead, they dismissed the allegation, believing it to be untrue, and considered the matter resolved among themselves. The deficiency was discovered when the resident's family member, unaware of the abuse allegation, called the police for a wellness check due to concerns about the resident being soiled and not changed by staff. Upon the police's arrival, a CNA informed the family member about the previous day's abuse allegation, which was the first time the family and administrative staff became aware of the incident. The DON was then notified and initiated an investigation. The resident later denied the abuse allegation and stated a preference against care from staff of the opposite sex. The failure to report the allegation immediately to administration constituted noncompliance with the facility's abuse reporting policy.