Failure to Protect Resident From Physical and Verbal Abuse by Agency CNA
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to protect a cognitively intact resident from staff abuse, as required by its Abuse, Prevention and Prohibition Policy. The resident, who was responsible for self and had diagnoses including unspecified dementia, low back pain, neuralgia and neuritis, and osteoarthritis, required assistance with ADLs such as undergarment changes, peri-care, dressing, transfers, and toileting. On the evening in question, the resident requested help from an agency CNA at bedtime to change an incontinent brief and get ready for bed. The CNA told the resident to do it independently and insisted the resident did not need help, despite the resident’s care plan indicating a need for one-person assistance with these tasks. During this interaction, the CNA took the resident’s soiled brief and slapped the resident in the face with it. The resident reported that the CNA was physically rough, jerked the resident around while assisting with clothing and brief changes, and pulled the brief up in a way that pinched and caused shoulder pain. The CNA spoke in a rude, harsh tone, repeatedly telling the resident to perform tasks independently and denying that pinching was occurring when the resident protested. The resident stated this treatment made him or her angry and feel unsafe. The resident also reported hitting a hand on the door when coming out of the bathroom and described the CNA as an agency staff member without a name tag who falsely gave another staff member’s name when asked to identify themselves. The resident’s roommate, who was also cognitively intact, corroborated key aspects of the abusive interaction. The roommate reported hearing the resident tell the CNA to stop pinching and hearing the CNA deny pinching while stating they were just trying to provide care. The roommate observed the CNA smack the resident back and forth in the face several times with gloves in the resident’s room, noted that the privacy curtain was not pulled, and described the CNA’s tone as harsh, rude, disrespectful, and mean. The roommate stated the CNA told the resident they would not help with getting ready for bed and that the resident could do it alone. The roommate felt uncomfortable witnessing the interaction and confirmed that the resident later reported the incident to staff. Facility records showed that the allegation was reported by another CNA after the resident described feeling unwell due to the way the aide had treated them, and the facility’s investigation identified the agency CNA assigned to that hall as the alleged perpetrator of physical abuse.
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