QAPI / Risk Management Perspective
Policy/Procedure: Policies and procedures need to be up-to-date and meet current guidelines. (F658 provided professional standards; F684 Quality of Care; F689;F726)
Implementation: Educate nurses on glucometer cleaning. Train staff at hire, orientation, and periodically on cleaning all medical equipment after each use. Staff should also be educated on use of personal protective equipment (PPE) as appropriate.
Audit: Conduct internal and external audits, including use of appropriate PPE and documentation of equipment cleaning.
Since 2007, one-third of the 47 nursing homes in Erie and Niagara have been bought by out-of-towners. For thousands of vulnerable nursing home residents, that hasn’t been good. The son of an 82-year-old resident stared at bedsores his father developed at a nursing home in Tonawanda. He thought his father had contracted“the Black Plague.” Doctors cut away his father’s rotting flesh, but the infection had spread too far. His father died.
At a Buffalo nursing home, workers failed to disinfect a glucose meter as they drew blood from one resident after another, including two with blood borne diseases. That put up to 30 residents’ health at risk and resulted in an $85,925 fine, one of the largest penalties imposed on a nursing home in the state.
The Tonawanda and Buffalo nursing homes aren’t owned locally. They’re operated by companies owned by out-of-town investors. The owner, a Long Island resident, has never worked in the healthcare sector and has no day-to-day involvement in the four nursing homes her companies own in Erie County, a spokesman said. Records and interviews show some of these nursing homes have cut staff to save money, while taking on high-needs patients that bring in higher reimbursements.
