Failure to Provide Timely ADL Assistance and Call Light Response
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to provide needed assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and to respond promptly to call lights for multiple residents. Facility policy dated 6/27/24 required staff to respond to call lights promptly. During observation, one resident was seated in a wheelchair near the nurses’ station wearing only a gown tied at the neck but pulled forward off the shoulders, with unkempt hair and crusting around the mouth, indicating a lack of grooming and dressing assistance. On the same day, another room’s residents were heard yelling for staff from behind a closed door while staff, including nurse aides and an LPN, were present on the unit. The call light monitor at the nurses’ station showed that this room’s call light had been alarming for at least 17 minutes and was still alarming at 21 minutes when the surveyor left the floor. Additional observations showed failures to assist with ADLs during mealtime. One nurse aide was observed engaged in a personal phone conversation while feeding a resident, indicating inattention during feeding assistance. Another resident called out to the surveyor for help with opening and applying multiple meal-related items, including a salt packet for french fries, a ketchup packet, and a salad dressing packet for a salad. A nurse aide later confirmed that this resident was unable to perform these tasks independently and that staff had not set up the lunch tray for the resident. The Nursing Home Administrator confirmed that the facility failed to provide ADL assistance for five of eleven residents reviewed, in violation of 28 PA Code 201.18(b)(2) Management and 201.29(a) Resident’s Rights.
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