Failure to Maintain Safe Room Temperatures and Clean, Functional Resident Rooms
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves failure to provide a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment, including maintaining appropriate room temperatures and functional room features for multiple residents. On an initial tour, one resident was observed in bed near the door wearing a winter coat under blankets in a very cold, dark room; she stated she liked a cool room but that it was "way too cold." Light from outside was seen shining through a gap between the PTAC heating unit and the wall, and 20-degree outdoor wind was blowing through the crack into the room. A newly admitted resident in the same room, near the heating unit, was observed wearing only a t-shirt with a thin blanket pulled up around her neck and stated she was freezing. Infrared temperature readings taken in the room showed temperatures ranging from 49 to 60 degrees, below the facility’s acceptable range of 71–81 degrees. In the same room, the light above the bed near the door had a broken pull string that was only a few inches long and could not be reached by the resident, who reported it had been this way for a few days and that she was tired of waiting for staff to turn it on and off. Further observations revealed additional environmental deficiencies affecting the same and other residents. One resident reported that her ceiling was leaking and that the wall beside her bed near the hallway was wet; the wall was damp to the touch, and the ceiling tile above and a ceiling tile in the hallway were dark and wet. The resident also reported a leak in the first-floor dining room where residents wait to go out to smoke, and a dark, wet ceiling tile was observed in that dining room area. In another resident room shared by two residents, the curtains were stained with what appeared to be a liquid spill; both residents stated the curtain had been dirty for a long time and had not been cleaned or changed. A towel was observed placed on top of the air conditioning unit in that room, and the residents stated cold air was coming through the panel and that the unit was not sealed properly. In the same room, the bathroom door did not close properly. These conditions collectively demonstrate the facility’s failure to maintain resident rooms and common areas in a clean, well-maintained, and comfortable condition.
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