F0584

E

Failure to Provide Warm Water in Resident Rooms

Mount Vernon, Illinois Survey Completed on 12-08-2025

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to provide warm water in resident rooms, compromising residents’ right to a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment. Four cognitively intact residents reported that the water in their bathroom sinks did not get warm. Two residents sharing one room, both with multiple chronic conditions including COPD, diabetes, severe protein-calorie malnutrition, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia, stated that the water in their room never became warm. A calibrated metal stemmed thermometer, verified at 32.5°F using the ice point method, was used to measure the water temperature at their bathroom sink after the water had been running for over 10 minutes; the temperature was 67.5°F. One of these residents reported having informed the Maintenance Director, who told her they needed to let the water run longer, but the water still did not become warm.

Two additional cognitively intact residents in another room, both with extensive medical histories including chronic respiratory failure with hypoxia, COPD, heart failure, diabetes with hyperglycemia, anemia, arthropathy, hypothyroidism, sleep apnea, chronic pain syndrome, and muscle wasting, also reported that the water in their bathroom sink did not get warm. When the surveyor measured the water temperature at their sink after running it for several minutes, it registered 71.0°F. The Maintenance Director acknowledged awareness of the lack of hot water in these two rooms on the 100 hall and stated he did not know why those rooms did not have hot water and did not know how to fix the problem. This situation occurred despite a facility policy stating that residents are to be provided with a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment.