Failure to Prevent Repeated Resident-to-Resident Verbal Abuse
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to protect a resident’s right to be free from verbal abuse when another resident repeatedly directed profanities and threats toward her. Resident 1, admitted with anxiety disorder and depression and having a BIMS score of 12 indicating moderate cognitive ability, frequently yelled for help while at the nurses’ station or in her room. Resident 2, admitted with depression and a BIMS score of 15 indicating no cognitive impairment, wheeled himself into Resident 1’s room on one occasion and yelled at her to “shut up” and not yell for help if she did not need it, then stated “suffocate the bitch.” On a later date, while Resident 1 was at the nurses’ station yelling as her baseline, Resident 2 became agitated and verbally aggressive, yelling “Shut the fuck up bitch, there is no reason to be yelling on New Year’s Eve, I’m going to choke you out. Somebody should choke you, I’m going to slap that bitch,” which staff present identified as a threat and as verbal abuse. On another documented occasion, Resident 2 again approached the nurses’ station while Resident 1 was yelling “Help me” and told her to “shut up,” stating “I don’t pay money to hear your bullshit. Tell her to shut up,” and “I’ll tell that bitch to shut up,” after which Resident 1 became quiet. Staff interviews confirmed these events, with one nurse stating Resident 1 looked scared and reported being afraid of Resident 2 after he yelled at her and threatened to choke and slap her, and another nurse confirming the accuracy of the documentation of Resident 2’s prior verbal aggression. Resident 2 acknowledged hearing Resident 1 yell for help daily and stated he went to her with the intention of making her “shut up.” These incidents occurred despite a facility policy on elder/dependent adult abuse that defines verbal abuse as the use of oral or gestured language including threats and disparaging or derogatory terms to or about residents within hearing distance, and requires protection of each resident’s rights, safety, and well-being against all forms of abuse.
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