Compliance Perspective – False Imprisonment & Abuse:
The Compliance Officer should review the facility’s policies and procedures regarding a resident’s right not to be restrained with the Compliance Committee. Staff must receive education and training regarding a resident’s right to Freedom from Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation with emphasis on the right not to be physically or chemically restrained. Training should also be provided on the facility’s policy and procedure regarding when to report an incident and to whom it should be reported. Staff education and training should include techniques for working with residents’ who exhibit difficult behaviors. The Compliance Officer is responsible for ensuring that an audit is developed and implemented to discover any unreported incidents where a resident may have been restrained physically or chemically.
After confessing to police investigators that they used duct tape to cover the mouth of a resident in the Florida nursing home where they were employed, two employees were arrested and charged with elder abuse 
and false imprisonment. The resident was a 67-year old woman with dementia whom the pair claimed would not be quiet and was screaming which made it difficult for them to care for the other residents. The pair not only put duct tape on the resident’s mouth, they tied her to a chair a taped her hands and feet against the chair. A third employee is also under investigation by the police.
Another caregiver told the police that she became aware that the woman had duct tape on her mouth and that she removed the tape from her mouth to give the resident her sleeping pills and she also removed some of the tape that was binding the woman’s body. This caregiver says that she told one of the two caregivers who were later arrested that tying a resident to a chair was wrong; however, she did not report the incident.
After being arrested and charged, the two employees were held in the county jail on $3,000 bail. The pair are also accused by police of “inflicting physical and psychological injury to the woman who was not alert to time, place and the year.”
The incident has been reported to the Florida Department of Children & Families and they have opened an “adult protective investigation.
An inspector from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration visited the nursing home. This agency is responsible for licensing and inspection of Florida’s nursing homes and other facilities.
The nursing home has received seven citations during the last four years related to recordkeeping and patient care. The citations involved failure to “provide care and services appropriate for a patient’s needs after hospitalization and for not keeping a drug cart locked.” Additionally, the facility was faulted for failure to submit an emergency management plan. These deficiencies were all promptly corrected, and the state has not taken any further action against the nursing home.
