Failure to Maintain Clean, Homelike Resident Room and Wheelchair
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to maintain a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment in a resident room. One cognitively intact resident (R25) reported embarrassment and shame about the condition of her room, describing cracked, fading paint and large nails in the wall that she tried to cover with pictures and a tee shirt. She expressed concern about the age of the ceiling tiles and worry they might contain asbestos. Surveyor observation of R25’s room and bathroom, with the DON present, revealed cracked areas on the walls with peeling paint, visible dark debris in the ceiling light covers, very dim lighting, dark and rust-colored debris on the back of the toilet riser and along the back of the toilet seat, and a string-like substance hanging from the bathroom ceiling corners. The Plant Operations Manager stated she is responsible for painting rooms and supervising housekeeping but has been occupied with resident transportation duties and has not had time to verify that housekeeping is cleaning other areas, and confirmed there was no dated plan of action for interior repairs. The deficiency also includes failure to ensure resident equipment was clean and properly maintained. A cognitively intact resident (R8) used a wheelchair to attend dialysis. Dialysis staff observed an approximately six-inch area of a hard, dark substance on the backrest of the wheelchair that appeared to be feces and reported an odor consistent with feces when the resident stood to be weighed; the substance was not on the resident’s person. The Plant Operations Manager reported she was called by the facility to retrieve the wheelchair from the dialysis unit and observed the hardened dark substance on the backrest, which she believed to be feces. The DON acknowledged being notified by dialysis staff that there was feces on the backrest of the wheelchair and directed the Plant Operations Manager to pick up the wheelchair and have it cleaned off-site before returning it to the dialysis center. The facility’s equipment policy states that wheelchairs are maintained by the facility for general resident use.
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