Failure to Respond Timely to Resident Call Light for Toileting Assistance
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to respond in a timely manner to a cognitively intact resident’s call light request for assistance with toileting. The resident had diagnoses including reduced mobility and muscle weakness and a care plan that required her call light to be kept within reach and that she receive assistance of one staff member with toileting. On the day of the incident, the resident reported that she had pressed her call light around 11:00 AM because she needed help with a bedpan, believed she might have soiled herself due to diarrhea, and stated that her bottom was sore. Surveyors first observed the call light illuminated above her door at 12:51 PM, with the call button near her hand, and the resident reported that she sometimes waited up to an hour for her call light to be answered and that this occurred almost daily. Between 12:51 PM and 1:48 PM, multiple staff entered the room but did not address the call light or the resident’s request. A dietary aide entered to remove the lunch tray and a housekeeping supervisor entered to remove garbage; neither asked the resident why her call light was on. A housekeeper later entered and, upon leaving, spoke with a CNA across the hall, who stated she was the resident’s aide and that she had to care for residents going to dialysis before assisting this resident. The call light remained on until 1:48 PM, when the ADON entered the room, asked what the resident needed, turned off the call light, and assisted her with the bedpan, 57 minutes after the call light was first observed on by surveyors. The ADON and DON both stated that staff were expected to respond to call lights in a timely manner, with the DON specifying an expectation of within 15 to 20 minutes, and the facility’s call light policy required timely response and that the call light remain on until the request was completed.
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