Failure to Provide Dignified Toileting Assistance
Summary
The facility failed to provide adequate assistance with toileting needs in a manner that promoted dignity, respect, and individuality for three residents. Facility policy required residents to be treated with dignity and respect, to receive prompt toileting assistance, and to be offered alternative interventions such as bedpans or urinals when needed. The cited deficiency involved residents who were dependent on staff for toileting and transfers, yet were told or left to go in their incontinence briefs instead of receiving timely toileting assistance or an alternative toileting method. One resident with Parkinson's disease, dementia, anxiety, prostate cancer, an indwelling urinary catheter, and dependence on staff for transfers and toileting was observed repeatedly hollering that he/she had to go. Staff were heard and seen delaying assistance while medication preparation continued, and a CNA told the resident to go ahead and go into the brief because a Hoyer lift was needed for transfer. The resident continued to cry out that he/she had already pooped in the pants, was ashamed, and needed help. Staff later provided perineal and catheter care, but only after the resident had remained distressed and incontinent in the room. A second resident with a fractured left leg, prior hip replacement, multiple fractures, heart failure, high blood sugar, and moderate dementia was documented as dependent on staff for transfers and toileting and always incontinent of urine and bowel. During interview, the resident stated staff told him/her to urinate in the incontinence brief and that staff could not get him/her up fast enough when needing the bathroom. The resident said waiting depended on how busy staff were and that a dry brief was more comfortable than a wet one. A third resident with spinal stenosis, lumbar stenosis, and a history of falls was documented as always incontinent of bowel and bladder and needing substantial assistance with toileting and two staff for transfer to the toilet. During resident council, the resident stated there were never two people available to help, that staff told him/her to go ahead and just go in the brief because they could not find help, and that this was humiliating and embarrassing. Interviews with the DON, administrator, and multiple staff confirmed that residents should not be told to go in their briefs and that bedpans or urinals should be offered instead, but the observed and reported care for these residents did not reflect that practice.
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