F0880

E

Failure to Maintain Transmission-Based Precautions for Covid-19 Positive Residents

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Survey Completed on 01-08-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to implement and maintain an effective infection prevention and control program during a period when 41 of 109 current residents had active Covid-19 infections. Facility policy on Isolation – Notices of Transmission-Based Precautions required the use of notices to alert personnel and visitors of transmission-based precautions while protecting resident privacy, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health Respiratory Virus Outbreak Toolkit directed that masking and appropriate transmission-based precautions, including airborne and contact precautions for SARS-CoV-2, be used. These precautions included keeping doors to rooms of residents with suspected or confirmed respiratory viral infections closed, using fit-tested N95 or higher-level respirators, and following contact precautions such as gloves, gowns, and dedicated or disinfected equipment.

On multiple nursing units, surveyors observed that room doors for numerous residents with active Covid-19 infections were open, contrary to airborne precaution requirements that doors remain closed. On the Five South unit, doors were open for several rooms housing residents with active Covid-19, and an LPN began closing doors only after noticing the surveyor documenting room numbers. The same pattern of open doors for Covid-19 positive residents was observed on the Sixth Floor, Fifth Floor, and Fourth Floor nursing units. Additionally, the LPN confirmed that none of the three PPE caddies on the Five South unit contained N95 masks for staff who chose to wear them. The Nursing Home Administrator confirmed that the facility failed to ensure an environment free from the potential spread of infection for 27 of 41 residents, in violation of multiple cited Pennsylvania regulatory codes.