Missed Hospice Services, Late Medication Administration, and Failure to Follow BP Parameters
Summary
The facility failed to ensure appropriate care and services were provided for a resident receiving hospice services. The resident had significant cognitive impairment with a BIMS score of 00 and was receiving palliative and/or hospice services under a recertification period from 11/17/25 through 02/14/26. The hospice agreement required skilled nursing and home health aide services according to the hospice plan, but the record lacked evidence of multiple required HHA visits during several weeks and lacked evidence of weekly skilled nursing visits. During an interview and record review, the DON acknowledged the absence of documented hospice visits in the facility record, and the hospice nurse stated she would search for the documentation, but the requested documents were not provided. The facility also failed to ensure medications were administered within the ordered time frame for multiple residents. For one resident, the MAR showed several medications given well beyond the one-hour window, including metoprolol, fluticasone-salmeterol, aspirin, furosemide, prednisone, lactulose, topiramate, rosuvastatin, gabapentin, amitriptyline, metformin, and others, with some doses delayed by several hours. The resident stated her medications are always late. For another resident with COPD, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, depression, and heart failure, the MAR showed repeated late administration of trazodone, fluticasone-salmeterol, amiodarone, tizanidine, Eliquis, rosuvastatin, buspirone, desvenlafaxine, vitamins, probiotics, metformin, guaifenesin, Pepcid, pantoprazole, roflumilast, metoprolol, and morphine. The resident stated she was supposed to receive morning blood pressure medication but did not receive it until late morning and reported that her BP was high when checked before receiving it. A third resident’s MAR showed late administration of Flomax, trazodone, midodrine, enoxaparin, methocarbamol, and Tylenol, including nighttime medications not given until early morning and evening medications not given until late at night. The resident stated her nighttime medications were not brought until 2:00 AM and denied refusing them, despite progress notes documenting refusal. Staff interviews confirmed that medications should be given within one hour before or after the scheduled time and acknowledged that medications were late on several occasions. The facility also failed to follow physician-ordered blood pressure parameters for two residents receiving antihypertensive or blood pressure-supporting medications. One resident had orders for midodrine to be held if systolic BP was greater than 120, but the MAR showed doses given when the documented BP was above the ordered parameter or when no BP reading was documented at the scheduled time. Another resident had an order for metoprolol to be held if systolic BP was less than 120, yet the MAR showed doses given when BP readings were below 120 and on one occasion with no documented BP reading. The DON agreed with the findings for both residents.
Penalty
Resources
Below are regulatory guidelines relevant to this citation:
Trusted data from CMS and state health departments
Every citation, penalty and Plan of Correction is sourced from public CMS records (latest release October 8, 2026) and official state health department websites — never guesswork.
In your survey window? See what surveyors are citing.
The Survey-Prep Report maps your facility's risk from 12 months of CMS and state citation data — what's being cited around you and what to check first. $129 one-time.