Failure to Honor Residents’ Rights to Personal Property and Explanation of Restrictions
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to honor residents’ rights to retain personal property and to receive explanations and justification when such property is restricted. One resident (R4), with intact cognition and a diagnosis including major depressive disorder, purchased an object grabber for another cognitively intact resident (R5), who had multiple mental health diagnoses. When the grabber arrived, the receptionist directed R4 to take it to psychiatric social services and then to the administrator. The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services Director (V3) and the former Administrator (V5) determined the grabber could potentially be used as a weapon and confiscated it, telling R4 that R5 would need a physician order to use such a device. Despite R4’s request, the facility did not provide a policy or written justification supporting the confiscation or the requirement for a physician order for the grabber. R4 reported feeling disrespected, dismissed, and that his rights and R5’s rights were being arbitrarily denied. He wrote at least two memos documenting his displeasure with what he described as lack of professionalism, arbitrary denial of resident rights, and discourtesy toward himself and R5. These memos stated that he followed procedures, that his item was confiscated, that he was told the administrator would not allow the object in the facility, and that he requested but did not receive a policy explaining why the grabber was not allowed. Social services notes show staff told R4 the shape of the grabber could render it usable as a weapon and offered to help him return it for a refund, and later documented that his concerns did not rise to the level of abuse, that he was allowed to vent, and that he remained dissatisfied and felt he was not being listened to. R5 separately approached psych social services stating he wanted to use the grabber purchased for him by another resident, and was informed, per the administrator, that he was not allowed to have it due to facility regulations. Subsequently, R5 obtained a physician order for a grabber and the facility provided a different grabber, but the original grabber purchased by R4 was not returned to him and its whereabouts were unknown to the Assistant Administrator (V2), the Director of Nursing (V7), or V3. The facility’s Resident Rights Policy states that residents have the right to retain and use personal property in their immediate living quarters unless deemed medically inappropriate by a physician and documented in the clinical record, and the facility’s dignity document states staff will not speak in a manner that could be interpreted as condescending, critical, or argumentative. The record and interviews do not show that a physician deemed the original grabber medically inappropriate or that the decision to confiscate and withhold it from R4 and R5 was documented in the clinical record, nor that R4 received the requested written policy justification or the return of his personal item.
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