Failure to Complete and Document Ordered Wound Treatments
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure that ordered wound treatments were both completed and documented for residents with non-pressure surgical wounds. One resident with a displaced comminuted fracture of the right femur had orders for daily and PRN wound care to the distal end of the right hip incision (right knee) and right shin, including cleansing with normal saline, application of collagen sheet and xeroform, and coverage with ABD and Kerlix. The resident’s care plan identified a risk for impaired skin integrity with non-pressure wounds to the right shin and right knee and included an intervention to provide skin care per facility guideline and PRN. Review of the Treatment Administration Records (TARs) for this resident showed multiple dates on which the ordered wound treatments were not signed off as completed and remained without documentation, and there was no additional documentation provided to show that the treatments were done on those dates. Another resident with a history of left below-knee amputation and peripheral vascular disease had care plan interventions that included encouraging compliance with the treatment regimen. This resident had orders for daily and PRN wound care to the left BKA surgical wound, involving cleansing with normal saline and packing with Dakin’s-soaked gauze, and separate orders for wound care to a right foot surgical site on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday and PRN schedule, including washing with soap and water and applying betadine and dry gauze. Review of this resident’s TARs for December and January revealed multiple dates on which the treatments for both the left BKA and the right foot surgical site were not signed off as completed and remained without documentation. During observation and interview, the resident reported that wound care was being done every day to the left leg and every other day to the right foot, and both dressings were dated, indicating treatments had been completed earlier in the shift, despite the lack of corresponding documentation on the TARs. Interviews with staff revealed inconsistent practices and gaps in responsibility for wound treatment and documentation. The wound treatment nurse reported that she performed the facility’s wound treatments Monday through Friday, with other wound care nurses covering weekends, and that if she was sick or not working, another nurse or the floor nurses were expected to complete the treatments. She stated that when she was sick, the facility sent text messages to floor nurses to complete treatments, but she was unsure who notified nurses on a specific date when she was absent and acknowledged she was “bad with documenting” treatments on the TAR. Floor LPNs reported that they did not sign off wound treatments on the TAR because wound nurses completed them and that they relied on text notifications to know when they needed to perform wound care; they stated they had not received such texts during the relevant period, including on a date when the wound nurse was out sick. The DON stated that, in general, wound care was not considered completed if it was not documented and that wound care was expected to be documented as completed, with floor nurses responsible for treatments when the wound care nurse was unavailable. The facility’s documentation policy required timely documentation of actual events, including treatments, which was not followed in these instances.
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