Florida Nursing Home Closes After Resident Attacks Another Resident
Failure by a nursing home to protect its residents from attacks perpetrated by one resident against another resident may be considered abuse, neglect, and mistreatment and substandard quality of care, and may result in the submission of false claims
Compliance Perspective – Resident Assault
Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing and Administrator will review policies and procedures designed to ensure the protection and safety of residents and prevention of events of abuse, neglect, and mistreatment.
Training: The Compliance and Ethics Officer, as well as every department head, will ensure that all staff are trained to understand abuse, neglect, and mistreatment prevention policies and procedures and their responsibility to respond immediately to concerns of abuse by one resident directed at another resident.
Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing should personally conduct an audit to determine if there are common areas where staff are not currently present to provide supervision of residents, and to make correction to that lack of supervision.
FREEDOM FROM ABUSE, NEGLECT AND EXPLOITATION
In the summer of 2018, a Florida nursing home closed related to the assault of an 86-year-old residentby a 52-year-old fellow resident and concern regarding the facility’s ability to ensure the safety of its residents. The incident was captured on a non-attended video surveillance camera. The video showed the younger resident punching the older resident more than 50 times during a two-minute period.
The attack occurred over a stolen cupcake in a secured common area that was unsupervised at the time of the incident. The elderly resident was transported to the hospital with a bruised, swollen face and hip pain.
The individual who attacked the elderly resident was in the nursing home related to a traumatic brain injury. He had prior multiple arrests for assault and battery, and because he had been determined to be mentally incapacitated, he had not been jailed. The police report on this incident indicated that he was not arrested for this assault because of his limited capacity.
The assailant was admitted to the facility in 2015 and, according to nursing home staff, had not shown any visible aggression since that admission. After the incident, he was evaluated and allowed him to remain at the facility with one-on-one supervision.
Of concern in a report from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration was the absence of evidence that the staff had been trained as the Florida Health Care Association required on understanding and preventing neglect and abuse, including abuse that one resident may perpetrate on another resident.
