Failure to Protect Resident Privacy and Rights Related to Mail and Packages
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure residents’ rights to send and receive unopened mail and packages, including privacy of such communications, for one resident reviewed for resident rights. Resident #65, a cognitively intact [AGE]-year-old female with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, reported that her Amazon packages had been received already opened, with the most recent occurrence around December 2025. Her face sheet and MDS showed an original admission in 2021, a recent readmission in 2025, and a BIMs score of 15, indicating intact cognition. The Business Office Manager stated that when resident mail was received, it was passed out to residents, but she routinely opened mail related to medical insurance claims and bank statements for all residents, scanned it, and filed it in residents’ electronic and physical files instead of giving it to them. She also reported opening all mail for cognitively impaired residents, including birthday cards and gift cards, before giving it to them, and acknowledged that she was unaware of the policy on delivering packages. The Receptionist reported that she received Amazon packages and other mail at the front desk and, before delivering packages to residents, showed them to the assigned nurse; if the package was a soft envelope, the nurse would feel it to determine if it could be given, and if it was a box, the nurse would open it to check for medications or items the resident could not have before delivery. The DON stated nursing was not responsible for resident mail or packages and was unaware of any policy requiring nursing to check them, and acknowledged that staff opening residents’ mail and packages affected residents’ privacy rights. The Administrator stated that mail should be sorted and given to residents unopened, including Amazon packages, and that there was no reason for staff to open residents’ mail, but the facility’s written communication policy did not address residents’ rights to receive closed mail.
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