Failure to Maintain Safe, Clean, and Well-Maintained Environment
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to maintain a safe, clean, and well‑maintained environment as required by its “Home-like Environment” policy, which states residents have a right to a safe, clean, and homelike setting. Surveyors observed multiple unresolved maintenance and housekeeping issues throughout the building and grounds. These included loose and insecure handrails leading into the kitchen, a damaged kitchen entry door with scratches and a missing piece, damaged and chipped wood paneling at the nurses’ station, and multiple areas of damaged flooring in resident rooms where heating/cooling units had been removed, exposing concrete and stained flooring around toilets and sinks. Additional observations included bubbling and chipping wall paint, rusted door frames, discolored and water‑stained ceiling tiles, and scuffed walls and baseboards in hallways and the dining room. Further observations showed environmental issues in resident-use and common areas, including a water hose lying in flowerbeds at the facility entrance, a Styrofoam cup on the ground outside a resident’s window, scratched glass doors to the smoking area, damaged floor tiles at the exit to the smoking area, a cabinet in a resident shower room with a missing handle, and a wall corner guard held in place with multiple strips of tape. Another shower room had a wall clock not mounted properly, resting on cloth hooks. Additional findings included a missing floor tile in a resident room exposing concrete, dried paint splatter at entries to several resident rooms, rust and chipped paint on a heating/cooling unit and adjacent exit door, a pool table in the dining room with a missing corner guard and exposed edges, and a raised garden bed with structural deterioration and a failing, rotted base partially detached and laying on the ground. Interviews confirmed that these conditions had been ongoing and not consistently addressed through the facility’s maintenance processes. A resident reported that the heating/air unit in her room was missing the bottom part, exposing dust and debris on the floor, and stated she would clean it herself if able. A CNA reported the broken cabinet in the shower room had been in that condition for many years and that repairs were not consistently completed after being reported via logbooks. The Housekeeping Manager acknowledged awareness of scuff marks on walls and baseboards but had not entered them into the maintenance logbook. The Dietary Manager stated she had concerns about the safety of the kitchen handrails, which she believed could pose a fall risk, and that maintenance had not repaired them. The Maintenance Director stated there were no outstanding work orders in the logbook, acknowledged that monthly painting had not been done for March, and noted the damaged raised garden bed had not been repaired or removed. The DON and Administrator both acknowledged there was no formal system to track and ensure completion of maintenance work orders, and the Administrator was aware of the unsecured kitchen handrails but was not aware if repairs had ever been completed.
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