F0761

D

Unlocked Treatment Cart with Medicated Treatments Left Unattended

Franklin, Indiana Survey Completed on 03-30-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to keep a treatment cart containing medicated treatments locked and secured as required by policy and professional standards. During a random observation on 3/30/26 from 9:44 a.m. to 9:47 a.m., surveyors observed an unlocked and unsupervised treatment cart on the 300 Hall, approximately 35 feet from the nurse’s station, with no staff present nearby. Multiple residents were observed in the Activity Room located across the hall from the nurse’s station and near the unlocked cart. A follow-up observation on the same date from 9:50 a.m. to 9:52 a.m. again found the same treatment cart unlocked and unattended in the same location, still without staff in the vicinity while multiple residents remained nearby in the Activity Room.

When a QMA approached the cart at 9:52 a.m., the cart was still unlocked and contained various medicated treatments and wound care products, including Bio-Freeze Cream 10%, Hydrocortisone Cream 1% with aloe, Triamcinolone Cream 0.1%, zinc oxide ointment 20%, Equos Wound Cleanser, Dakin’s Solution half strength, Vashe Wound Solution, and two strengths of a topical antimicrobial/antiseptic wound cleaner, along with multiple bandages and treatment dressings. The QMA stated that the treatment cart was supposed to be kept locked when unattended. The DON later provided documentation showing that 1 of 23 residents on the 300 Hall was cognitively impaired and self-mobile, and also provided the facility’s Medication Storage policy, dated 4/16/24, which states that all drugs and biologicals will be stored in locked compartments. The observed unlocked and unsupervised treatment cart was inconsistent with this policy and the regulatory requirement that drugs and biologicals be stored in locked compartments.