F0813

D

Failure to Follow Unit Refrigerator Policy for Labeling and Expired Food Monitoring

Niles, Illinois Survey Completed on 12-05-2025

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to follow its policy on unit refrigerators regarding labeling, storage, and monitoring of expiration dates for foods brought in by families for residents. For one resident, an older female with multiple diagnoses including fractures, diabetes, osteoarthritis, acute cystitis, hypertensive heart disease, and dysphagia, surveyors inspected her personal refrigerator and found no temperature monitoring log despite a thermometer reading of 40°F. Multiple food items were expired or unlabeled, including hard candy with past expiration dates, a smoothie snack with a past expiration date, unlabeled containers of pound cake, soup, kimchi, and Korean kangjam, discolored and visibly spoiled boiled purple yam in a ziplock bag, and a piece of pound cake with brownish-black raised texture suggestive of spoilage. Additional items included cans of peach juice and orange pineapple juice with printed expiration dates, very soft and mushy black plums in an unlabeled ziplock bag, and high-calcium black soy milk packs without expiration dates on the packaging.

For a male resident with diagnoses including diabetes, end stage renal disease, cerebral infarction, dysphasia, hypertensive heart disease, speech and language deficit, arthritis, and seizure, his personal refrigerator was inspected with a CNA present. Items found included yogurt with an expiration date that had passed, organic roasted chestnut with a past expiration date, and several unlabeled items such as dried fish, boiled purple potatoes, grapes, cherry tomatoes, and boiled corn in ziplock bags. The CNA stated that housekeeping maintains the personal refrigerator log and acknowledged that food brought in by families should be checked for expiration and labeled, and that consuming expired food is not safe.

Interviews with staff revealed inconsistent implementation of the facility’s policies. A CNA reported that she labels food when she receives it but was unsure if others do the same, and confirmed that all foods need labels and should be checked to ensure they are still fresh. An LPN stated that CNAs and housekeeping must check food in personal refrigerators daily and that housekeeping maintains temperature logs, and she personally identified spoiled and expired items in one resident’s refrigerator when they were pointed out. The DON stated that staff are responsible for labeling and dating food brought by families and that housekeeping checks food for freshness and expiration, while also noting that sometimes CNAs ask families to write dates on items. The housekeeping supervisor reported that housekeeping is responsible for daily temperature checks and inspection of food for freshness and expiration, that all food should be labeled and opened items kept no more than 72 hours, but also stated that sometimes they have no control over what families bring. The resident’s family later reported they had not been advised by the facility to label food they bring. Review of the written policy on Unit Refrigerators showed requirements for daily temperature checks, cleaning every three days by housekeeping, and removal of spoiled or expired food, as well as resident/caregiver responsibility to seal, date, and promptly store perishable items, which were not consistently followed in these cases.