F0656

E

Failure to Individualize Care Plans for Resident-to-Resident Abuse and Aggression

Scottsdale, Arizona Survey Completed on 03-13-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to develop and update individualized, comprehensive care plans with measurable objectives and timetables to address resident-to-resident abuse and aggression. Surveyors found that for all sampled residents involved in altercations, the facility used the same generic psychosocial well-being care plan focus and identical interventions, regardless of whether a resident was a victim or perpetrator. These standard interventions typically included 72-hour observation, consultations with pastoral care, social services, and psychiatric services, monitoring and documenting responses, and removing residents to a calm, safe environment when conflict arose. The facility’s own policy required comprehensive, person-centered care plans based on data gathering and careful consideration of problem areas and causes, but this was not reflected in practice.

Multiple resident pairs were involved in documented altercations where individualized triggers and behavior patterns were not incorporated into active care plans. One resident with dementia and severe cognitive impairment, who wandered and entered other residents’ rooms, reported being punched in the nose by another resident with a history of going into others’ rooms and breaking personal items; staff knew that one resident preferred to be left alone and that the other frequently entered rooms, but these behaviors and staff interventions were not reflected in the care plans. In another case, a resident with severe cognitive impairment and parkinsonism was bruised under the eye after his roommate, who had psychotic disorder and severe cognitive impairment, accused him of stealing millions of dollars and punched him; staff described frequent delusions about stolen money and rapid escalation, yet the care plans did not document these specific triggers or staff strategies. Similarly, a resident with severe cognitive impairment and PTSD had his wrist grabbed and squeezed by another resident with dementia who was described as trying to be helpful by pulling him away from automatic doors, but the individualized behaviors and triggers for both residents were not integrated into their care plans.

Additional incidents showed a pattern of unaddressed history of physical aggression and specific behavioral triggers. One resident with schizoaffective disorder and dementia had a prior documented assault on another resident and threats toward a nurse, but his active care plan did not reflect a history of physical aggression; later, he was observed kicking another resident multiple times, and both residents received identical, non-individualized psychosocial care plan focuses. Another resident with PTSD and cognitive impairment had prior documented physical aggression in resident-to-resident altercations, yet his care plan lacked any concern for physical aggression until after he was punched in the stomach by another resident with vascular dementia and a history of arguing and swinging at others; the aggressor’s behavioral care plan listed only anxiety and screaming/agitation as current behaviors despite a recent altercation. In a separate case, a resident reported being hit in the head by his roommate, who admitted striking him to take his blanket; this roommate had multiple prior behavior notes for taking other residents’ food and becoming combative during redirection, but his behavioral treatment plan did not reflect this history and instead focused on sexually inappropriate and isolative behaviors.

Staff interviews confirmed that knowledge of resident behaviors and effective interventions was not consistently translated into the care plans. An LPN stated that all behaviors should be documented in the care plan but reported that nursing staff did not have access or did not know how to access and update care plans, indicating reliance on the MDS nurse for updates. A CNA reported that she documented incidents in the charting system and informed the nurse but did not have access to care plans. The MDS nurse acknowledged that all residents involved in resident-to-resident altercations were given the same vague, general interventions and that more detailed information about incidents was kept in Risk Management, to which not all staff had access. Corporate nursing staff stated that care plans were expected to be customized and that anyone in the building could update them, but this expectation was not reflected in practice, resulting in care plans that did not capture individualized triggers, histories of aggression, or specific staff interventions known to be effective.