Failure to Maintain Dignity and Accommodate Residents’ TV and Room-Transfer Needs
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to honor residents’ rights to dignity, self-determination, and accommodation of needs related to room transfer and television access. One resident with bilateral primary osteoarthritis of the hip and a right artificial knee joint, who had intact cognition and required varying levels of assistance with ADLs, was transferred from one room to another. During the move, the maintenance assistant placed all of the resident’s clothes and personal belongings from the prior room onto the bed in the new room and moved the resident around 1 PM. Staff, including CNAs and LVNs, acknowledged that CNAs were responsible for putting residents’ belongings away in closets or drawers during a room move so the resident could access the bed. However, the belongings were left on the bed, and the resident reported having to sit in a wheelchair for approximately 2½ hours, unable to lie down. The resident’s caregiver corroborated that, upon arrival, the resident was in the wheelchair with clothes and personal items still on the bed, and that the resident appeared upset and reported having been left waiting. The same resident also reported that he did not read and preferred to watch TV, but the facility never provided a functional TV remote control after the room transfer. The maintenance assistant stated that the remote control available was a universal controller that was not compatible with the resident’s specific TV brand and that the facility did not have a suitable remote for that TV. The DON stated that the TV remote control should be functional so residents can watch the programs they want. As a result, the resident’s stated preference to keep up with the news, documented as somewhat important on the MDS, was not accommodated because he lacked a working remote to operate the TV in his room. A second resident, with generalized muscle weakness and difficulty walking, also had intact cognition and required extensive assistance with ADLs. This resident’s MDS documented that keeping up with the news was very important. During observation and interview, the resident demonstrated that not all TV channels worked, specifically turning to a news channel and another channel that displayed blurred or unclear screens compared to other channels, and stated that it was bothersome not to be able to watch those news stations. The maintenance assistant confirmed that CNN and Channel 5 on this resident’s TV did not work and reported having informed the administrator and attempting to get management to change the cable service/company. The DON stated that all channels should work so residents can watch the programs they want. These conditions showed that the facility did not ensure residents had functional television access consistent with their expressed preferences for news programming.
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