Failure to Maintain Clean, Odor-Free Resident Rooms and Shower Areas
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to maintain a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment on one of three nursing units, including resident rooms and shower rooms. Facility policy on cleaning and disinfecting resident rooms requires housekeeping surfaces to be disinfected regularly and when visibly soiled, and specifies that floor mopping solution be replaced every three rooms or at least every 60 minutes. Despite this, surveyors observed a strong urine odor on the first-floor unit hallway on multiple occasions. On one observation, there was a strong odor of urine and feces near a specific room, and the Unit Manager confirmed a significant fecal odor and urine spilled next to a resident’s bed. Shortly thereafter, a resident who used a Foley catheter reported that the catheter had leaked during the night, leaving her bed, floor, sheets, and surrounding area soiled, and stated that these areas had not yet been cleaned. In another room on the same unit, surveyors observed a large pile of dried brown bodily fluid consistent with vomit next to a bed, and a nursing assistant confirmed that a resident had vomited earlier that morning and that the area had not been cleaned. The Unit Manager confirmed these conditions and contacted the Housekeeping Director, who stated he had not been notified about the affected rooms and reported that nursing staff are responsible for cleaning bodily fluids and then notifying housekeeping to disinfect. Additional observations with the Housekeeping Director revealed that the first-floor shower room had a significant amount of hair on the floor from a recent haircut, and the third-floor shower room had dirty socks and a dirty towel left on the floor in a shower stall. On subsequent days, surveyors again noted a strong urine odor upon entering the first-floor unit, which the Unit Manager and later the Administrator confirmed, identifying a specific room as the apparent source of the odor.
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