Healthcare Compliance Perspective – Bedbugs:
The Compliance Officer should investigate any complaint regarding pest infestation and review the effectiveness of the facility’s pest control program. An audit should be performed to determine if other residents have unreported or unknown pest infestations. The Compliance Officer should s
chedule regular, monthly professional pest inspections for the next six months to ensure that the problem has been resolved.
A 70-year-old resident who has lived in an assisted living center since 2015 has filed a lawsuit against the center. The woman alleges that in 2016 when she complained about the bedbugs, the executive director and facility staff ignored her complaint and demeaned her and told her healthcare provider and social worker that she was “hallucinating or imagining the critters.” The woman went to the executive director after finding red welts on her skin and was told to stop complaining.
Recently, a family member of another resident saw bugs crawling on the woman and took her to the executive director. The next day the center had a pest exterminator come to the center and inspect three of the residents’ rooms including the woman’s, and they found bedbugs.
“Rather than taking reasonable, prompt action to eradicate the bed bugs upon notice of the problem, the center chose to try and conceal it by attempting to discredit and silence residents who spoke out,” her lawsuit states.
The attorney for the center asserts that the lawsuit is unwarranted and that the center had dutifully investigated every complaint about bedbugs made by the residents. He also said that most of them had been unfounded; but when bedbugs were discovered they were immediately eradicated.
The assisted living center is associated with a church and identified as a ministry of that church. In March, the center notified residents that it was stopping its operation as an assisted living facility and would become an independent retirement home for seniors that does not provide any medical services. Residents on Medicaid requiring medical, nursing or caregiving services will be required to relocate by July 4, and the woman bringing the lawsuit is included in that group. It is expected that most of the residents in the center’s 57 apartments will be leaving.
Because of the reported complaints about the bedbugs and supposed hallucinations, the woman has been having difficulty finding a new home. It seems other centers are hesitant to admit her as a resident.
