Failure to Report Resident’s Verbal Abuse Allegation to State Agency
Penalty
Summary
Facility staff failed to timely report an allegation of verbal abuse to the state agency after a resident complained that two GNAs spoke about them as if they were not present while providing care. During an interview, the resident stated they had emailed the Administrator and DON about the incident. The Administrator later confirmed that the resident had sent an email to both the Administrator and DON reporting that, during care the previous night, two GNAs were making comments about the resident. The email was sent in the early morning hours, but the Administrator stated she was out sick and the DON was at a hearing, and they missed the email and did not address the resident’s concerns. In a separate interview, the DON stated that the resident typically emailed or called when they needed to be changed and that she was not aware the resident had an issue with the GNAs because she had just returned from vacation and also missed the email. The DON reported that their usual practice is to report allegations of abuse immediately to the state within two hours and to the Ombudsman, but in this case the allegation of verbal abuse contained in the resident’s email was not reported to the state agency. This failure was identified in one of two abuse allegations reviewed during the complaint survey.
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