F0880

E

Failure to Ensure Hand Hygiene During Meal Tray Delivery

Fort Worth, Texas Survey Completed on 03-06-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure staff performed appropriate hand hygiene during meal service, as required by its infection prevention and control program and hand hygiene policy. During a lunch meal delivery on Hall 100, multiple CNAs passed meal trays to residents without using hand sanitizer or otherwise performing hand hygiene immediately before resident contact. Observations on 03/05/26 at approximately 12:19 PM showed two CNAs knocking on doors and entering rooms to deliver meal trays to two residents without sanitizing their hands beforehand. At 12:23 PM, another CNA exited the shower room and began assisting with meal tray distribution without sanitizing her hands. At 12:25 PM, this same CNA adjusted her clothing by pulling on her pants and then continued pushing the meal cart and delivered a tray to another resident. At 12:27 PM, she handed a tray to a fourth CNA, who took the tray into another resident’s room without sanitizing her hands.

The residents involved had various medical and functional profiles documented in their records. One male resident had a history of traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorder, and required setup or clean-up assistance for eating, with a care plan goal to maintain dignity by being clean, dry, odor free, and well groomed. Another male resident had dementia, peripheral vascular disease, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and hypertension, and was care planned for ADL self-care performance deficit related to dementia, with interventions including setup and supervision for eating; his MDS indicated he could eat independently. A third male resident had dementia, paranoid schizophrenia, encephalopathy, anxiety disorder, hypertension, and respiratory failure, and was care planned as being at risk for infection and viral respiratory infection, with interventions including education on signs, symptoms, and precautions. A female resident had type 2 diabetes, severe sepsis, schizophrenia disorder, cognitive communication deficit, and bipolar disorder, and was also care planned as being at risk for infection and viral respiratory infection with similar educational interventions. Several of these residents required setup or clean-up assistance for eating, meaning staff were expected to handle their meal trays and related items.

Interviews with residents and staff further described the circumstances surrounding the lack of hand hygiene. Two cognitively intact male residents reported they did not know whether staff sanitized their hands before bringing food into their rooms; one stated staff did not wash their hands before leaving his room, and both acknowledged that clean hands were important, though they reported not having been sick. One cognitively intact female resident was unable to provide relevant information about staff hand hygiene during an interview, instead giving unrelated responses. Staff interviews revealed inconsistent access to and use of hand sanitizer: one CNA stated she did not use hand sanitizer when passing trays and reported that hallway sanitizer stations did not work, claiming she had informed nurses but did not receive sanitizer. Another CNA stated there was no or mostly empty hand sanitizer in the hall, that she usually washed her hands when passing and picking up trays, and that she had washed her hands in the shower room and therefore did not see a need to sanitize again; she denied reporting the lack of sanitizer. A third CNA stated staff were supposed to carry hand sanitizer in their pockets and believed there were sanitizer containers on the halls but would need to check, and she thought housekeeping was responsible for ensuring availability. The DON reported she was new, believed staff should have hand sanitizer at all times, was unsure about the presence of sanitizer receptacles in the halls, and denied being told sanitizer was unavailable. The Administrator stated the expectation was that CNAs practice good hand hygiene and notify her if sanitizer was not available. Facility policies on infection control and hand hygiene required staff involved in direct resident contact to perform proper hand hygiene to prevent the spread of infection, but observations and interviews showed this was not consistently implemented during meal service for the four residents.

The facility’s own staff acknowledged that failure to sanitize hands placed residents at risk of infection, cross contamination, and transfer of bacteria. CNAs interviewed stated that residents were at risk of transmission of infection when staff did not sanitize their hands, and the DON stated that when staff did not sanitize their hands they placed residents at risk of transmission of infection. The Administrator similarly stated that residents had been at risk of getting sick with infection or a UTI. These statements, combined with the observed lack of hand hygiene during meal tray delivery and the documented policies requiring hand hygiene, form the basis of the identified deficiency in the facility’s infection prevention and control program.

The infection control and prevention in-service record dated 1/5/26 stated that the purpose of the policy was to reduce the spread of infections by using evidence-based techniques and established infection control policies and procedures, and that it was the policy to use precautions to reduce the risk and prevent transmission of infectious agents. The hand hygiene policy dated 11/12/17 specified that staff involved in direct resident contact would perform proper hand hygiene procedures to prevent the spread of infection to personnel, residents, and visitors, and defined hand hygiene as either handwashing or use of an alcohol-based hand rub, to be performed when indicated using proper technique consistent with accepted standards of practice. Despite these written policies and in-service education, the observed practices during the lunch meal service on Hall 100 did not align with the facility’s stated infection prevention and control requirements, resulting in the cited deficiency.