Failure to Involve Resident and Representative in Ongoing Care Plan Conferences
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure that a resident and the resident’s representative were offered the opportunity to participate in person-centered care conferences as required by facility policy and WAC 388-97-0200(3). The facility’s “Interdisciplinary Care Conference” policy, dated 3/2024 and revised on 12/16, stated that an interdisciplinary care conference is to be completed upon admission, quarterly, and following a change in condition, and that the resident and/or resident representative will be invited. The resident in question was admitted with a diagnosis including dementia with anxiety. Review of the electronic medical record showed only one documented care plan conference held on 07/14/2025, with no additional conferences recorded despite the length of stay and policy requirements. During a telephone interview, the resident’s collateral contact reported having attended only one care plan conference since admission and stated that a more recent conference had been scheduled but could not be attended due to a last-minute issue, after which the collateral contact requested that the meeting be rescheduled. The collateral contact also stated a desire to be involved in the resident’s care. In a subsequent interview, the social services staff member responsible for care plan conferences confirmed that conferences are supposed to occur within the first week of admission and then quarterly in alignment with the MDS schedule. When asked specifically about this resident, the staff member could locate only the single documented conference in the EMR and acknowledged that the facility was working on scheduling another conference with the resident and the collateral contact.
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