Failure to Notify Family of Missing Hearing Aids
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to notify the family of a resident with hearing loss and impaired cognition when the resident's bilateral hearing aids went missing. The resident had a history of hearing loss, degenerative disease of the nervous system, seizures, and required assistance with personal care. Physician orders required that the hearing aids be checked every shift and stored in a medication cart each night. Documentation showed that the order to store the hearing aids was not completed from mid-October through November, and there were no progress notes referencing the missing hearing aids or family notification during this period. The resident's family was not informed of the missing hearing aids until they themselves reported the issue via a Resident Concern Form nearly two weeks after the aids were last seen. The facility's records confirmed that staff noticed the hearing aids were missing and searched for them, but failed to communicate this to the family in a timely manner. The deficiency was identified through record review and interviews, which verified the lack of timely family notification regarding the missing hearing aids.