(914) 220-1086Long Island State Veterans Home, a Suffolk County nursing home located in Stony Brook, NY, was cited in an August, 2011 deficiency report by the Department of Health for multiple deficiencies. Included among these citations were a failure to provide ADL care to dependent residents and a failure to establish an infection control program.
According to 42 CFR 483.25(a)(3), a facility must ensure that residents who are unable to carry out activities of daily living are given the necessary services the maintain adequate nutrition, grooming, and hygiene. With respect to one particular resident who needed assistance while eating, the DOH noted that the staff left an unopened tray of food on a table away from the resident during breakfast. The tray remained there for over one hour, with no staff member providing assistance with eating. Although the resident’s regular CNA was off duty on the day in question, that does not relieve the facility, and any other CNA taking over the resident’s care in her absence, of a duty to adhere to the resident’s care plan and minimum data sets. The facility documented that the resident needed assistance at meal times, and this necessity went unheeded for the resident.
The second provision of the CFR relevant to this blog entry, 483.65, sets forth requirements for a facility to provide for infection control. The instance documented by the DOH relates to a bloody stylet needle found next to a resident’s bed. The resident received regular IV fluid treatment, and the facility has policies in place regarding disposal of needles, so the process should have been familiar to the staff member administering the IV treatments. Instead of being placed in a sharps container, as is protocol, the needle was found on the floor of the resident’s room. Fortunately there was no actual harm relating to this incident.
To read the full DOH report on Long Island State Veterans Home, click here.
