Unqualified Dietary Staff Used as Cooks and Bakers
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure there were sufficient qualified dietary staff available to cook meals for 127 residents who received meals from the kitchen. During interviews, multiple dietary aides reported that they were functioning as cooks or being required to perform cooking and baking tasks despite lacking cook certification. One former dietary aide stated that several individuals working as cooks did not have certification and that she was pressured to bake despite being a dietary aide and feeling scared to use the large, hot oven. During a kitchen tour, three dietary aides were observed performing meal preparation and tray line duties, including one aide who was cooking and plating breakfast while the others assembled and transported trays. The Dietary Manager reported that only she and one dietary aide were considered qualified cooks and that the remaining staff were food handlers, who she acknowledged were not supposed to prepare food because they had not taken the required classes. Despite this, the schedule listed several dietary aides as cooks, and staff interviews confirmed that food handlers were cooking breakfast and lunch and baking desserts. Documentation showed that most of these staff held only food handler certificates rather than cook certification, while the facility’s job description and safe food handling policy required appropriate procedures for preparing and cooking food in accordance with the FDA Food Code. The census showed 131 residents, with 127 receiving meals from the kitchen affected by these staffing and qualification issues.
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