Insufficient Dietary Staffing Leads to Unsanitary Kitchen Conditions
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to provide sufficient support personnel to safely and effectively carry out food and nutrition services in the kitchen, resulting in multiple unsanitary conditions. During an observation with the Dietary Manager, only two staff were working in the kitchen instead of the three scheduled, due to one staff member having a pre-approved sick day. The Dietary Manager reported she was covering the absent staff member’s position and that the kitchen was running behind. Surveyors observed debris on the kitchen floor near the wall from a grease trap backing up from under the kitchen floor, and the Dietary Manager stated this backup happened frequently and that Maintenance had been aware of it for a long time. The ice machine was observed with visible dirt on the left, right, and front sides, and it was overflowing with ice. The broken cover of the ice machine was seen lying on wet blankets placed on the floor to catch water dripping from the ice. The surveyor also observed that the food mixer, which was covered with transparent plastic wrap, had accumulated food particles, and the Dietary Manager acknowledged it should have been cleaned before being covered but was not, due to the kitchen running behind while she functioned in the absent staff member’s role. The facility census showed 161 residents, with 159 receiving oral foods from the kitchen. The facility’s dietary job descriptions indicated that the dietary aide working 6:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. was responsible for ensuring all hydration stations were filled, and the AM cook working 5:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. was responsible for cleaning the cook area. The facility’s dietary services policy required that all food equipment, utensils, dishes, and steam tables be cleaned and sanitized daily, that ice machines be used and maintained to eliminate contamination during ice manufacture, storage, and dispensing, and that all floor surfaces be cleaned daily and as appropriate using appropriate cleansers. These observed conditions and staffing issues occurred in the context of providing food to 159 residents who receive oral nutrition from the facility’s kitchen.
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