Failure to Treat Resident With Dignity and Respect When Requesting Assistance
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure a resident was treated with dignity and respect when requesting assistance. The resident had vascular dementia, was cognitively intact per the most recent MDS, was hard of hearing, and required assistance with personal care, transfers, and mobility using a walker and wheelchair. Her care plan included interventions to allow adequate time for responses, minimize environmental stimuli, and provide clear, simple instructions due to impaired communication and psychosocial wellbeing concerns related to negative interactions with others. On the day of the incident, staff in the activity area heard a staff member speaking in a very loud and angry tone. The Activity Director and Activity Assistant reported hearing a CNA tell the resident that she could not keep pushing her call light if she did not need something because there were other people to take care of and the CNA did not have time to keep coming into her room. When they looked to see where the yelling was coming from, they saw the CNA exiting the resident’s room, which was in isolation for COVID-19. Another staff member later reported that the same CNA also told the resident that she would not change her because she was too busy. Additional staff interviews corroborated that the CNA told the resident to stop putting on her call light and stated she was not going to take the resident to the bathroom. One CNA reported standing outside the closed door and hearing the CNA tell the resident to stop using the call light and that she would not take her to the bathroom; when the resident turned on her call light again, this CNA assisted her to the bathroom. The resident’s roommate confirmed that the CNA told the resident not to turn on her call light unless she needed something. The facility’s abuse policy defined abuse to include deprivation of goods and services necessary to maintain physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being, including when staff have the knowledge and ability to provide care but choose not to do so or fail to acknowledge a resident’s request for assistance, resulting in care deficits.
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