Unsanitary Dining Conditions Due to Urinal Left Near Meal Tray
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure that a resident’s meal was served under sanitary conditions and in an environment conducive to dining. During a lunch meal observation, staff delivered a meal tray to Resident 7’s room while two urinals remained on the overbed table, one of which contained urine. The staff member placed the resident’s tray on a side table, asked if the resident wanted cups removed, donned gloves, removed the cups, removed gloves, sanitized hands, and then placed and uncovered the tray, but did not remove the urinals from the overbed table before exiting the room. Shortly afterward, the resident activated the call light and told a nurse that he refused to eat with the urinal present, at which point the nurse removed it. Resident 7’s records showed admission on a specified date and an MDS with a BIMS score of 13, indicating the resident was cognitively able to express preferences. Diagnoses included other acute osteomyelitis of the left tibia and fibula and diabetes mellitus. In interviews, the DON stated that nutritional staff had recently begun assisting with meal tray delivery and were only permitted to place trays in rooms, while CNAs were asked to check rooms before lunch to ensure urinals were removed from tables. The DON also stated her expectation that staff remove urinals before placing trays and that nutritional staff notify someone if a urinal is present when they deliver a tray. In a subsequent interview, the resident reported that having the urinal left on the table when his tray was placed did not make him feel good and that he did not like it, although he acknowledged staff can be forgetful and felt the urinal should have been removed.
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