F0550

D

Resident Rights Violated When Call Light and Bed Remote Removed

Fortuna, California Survey Completed on 01-23-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

A resident admitted in March 2023 with chronic kidney disease experienced a violation of resident rights when a licensed nurse (LN 1) removed her call light and bed remote while she was in her room. According to LN 1’s nursing note dated 11/30/25, the nurse took these items because the resident had been moving her bed up and down and repeatedly pressing her call light, and the nurse expected this behavior to stop. During an interview, the Director of Nursing stated that LN 1’s actions were inappropriate, acknowledged that the facility is the resident’s home, and considered the call light and bed remote to be the resident’s personal property and a resident rights issue. Review of the facility’s Resident Rights policy, revised 1/1/12, showed that employees are required to treat all residents with kindness, respect, and dignity and to honor the exercise of residents’ rights, which was not followed in this incident.

This failure resulted in the resident not having access to her call light and bed remote as documented in the nursing note and confirmed by the DON, constituting a lack of respect for the resident’s dignity and self-determination as outlined in the facility’s own policy.