Failure to Return Resident's Personal Belongings to Designated Representative
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure that a resident's representative was given the opportunity to retrieve the resident's personal belongings following the resident's death. According to facility policy, personal property is to be safeguarded and returned to the resident or their representative upon discharge or death, with documentation of the transfer. In this case, the resident's representative was listed as the emergency contact and next of kin, and the resident's belongings were inventoried upon admission. However, there was no documentation showing that the belongings were returned to the representative after the resident's death. Instead, a family member who was not the designated representative removed the resident's belongings from the facility, as observed by an LVN. The inventory form was not updated to reflect this removal, and staff could not provide documentation or information to the representative regarding which belongings were taken or by whom. The administrator confirmed that the inventory form only documented the intake of belongings and not their release, resulting in the representative being unable to retrieve the resident's personal property.