Failure to Verify Dish Machine Sanitizer Levels Before Meal Service
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure the dish machine was effectively sanitizing dishes in accordance with professional standards and its own policy, creating a potential for cross contamination for all 47 residents. During an initial kitchen observation at 9:00 AM, the dish machine was in use for washing dishes when a dietary aide was asked to check the sanitizer level; the aide was unable to obtain a reading on the test strip. The dietary manager then obtained a new set of test strips but was also unable to obtain a sanitizer level reading. The dish machine sanitizer log for that day contained no recorded sanitizer level, and the dietary manager confirmed there was no documentation that the sanitizer level had been checked that morning prior to starting the breakfast dishes, despite stating that sanitizer levels were supposed to be checked three times daily before washing breakfast, lunch, and dinner dishes. The facility’s sanitizing solution policy required employees to prepare sanitizer solution per manufacturer guidelines and to test any dispensing system daily to ensure appropriate concentration, but this was not documented or verified on the morning in question. The Long Term Care Facility Application for Medicare and Medicaid documented that 47 residents resided in the facility at the time of the survey.
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