Failure to Implement Abuse Prevention and Verification for Contracted Lab Staff
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to implement and operationalize written policies and procedures to prohibit and prevent abuse, neglect, and theft by contracted staff. Video footage showed a contracted laboratory technician approach a resident seated in a wheelchair near the elevator, motion for the resident to move back, and then slap the resident’s face with an open hand in the presence of other residents and staff. The technician later stated to the ADON that the resident had said something derogatory about his mother and that he would slap anyone who did so. The ADON questioned what the technician might do in a resident room with a resident who could not speak up for themselves. Interviews with the lab supervisor, DON, and administrator revealed that contracted laboratory technicians did not receive VA abuse prevention training, and the facility did not verify VA abuse prevention education for these contracted staff before they worked with residents. The DON and administrator both stated that residents were protected from abuse by contracted staff through VA abuse prevention training, yet acknowledged that the facility neither provided this training to lab technicians nor verified that they had received it elsewhere. Review of the VA Abuse Prevention policy, revised 10/1, showed it did not address protocols for assuring verification of abuse prevention education for contracted staff, even though the policy stated the facility does not tolerate abuse or misappropriation of resident property by anyone, including staff of other agencies serving the individual.
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