OIG 2016 Mid-Year Work Plan
June 2016
In its 2016 mid year work plan, the Office of Inspector General for the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services (“OIG”) announced that it will be reviewing nursing home records for residents hospitalized for urinary tract infections (“UTI”) to determine if the nursing homes provided services to prevent or detect UTIs in accordance with their care plans before they were hospitalized.
According to the OIG, a study sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services(“CMS”) identified UTIs as being associated with potentially avoidable hospitalizations. The CMS study found that most UTIs are preventable and manageable in the nursing home setting.
According to the OIG, the CMS study further found that UTIs acquired during the course of health and medical care in a nursing home setting could indicate poor quality of care.
According to the OIG, nursing homes must develop and follow comprehensive care plans addressing each resident’s care needs, which includes urinary incontinence.
Other “In The News”
- Two nurses from the Peninsula Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Far Rockaway, NY were criminally charged with endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person and face up to four years in prison for actively ignoring a resident for more than 12 minutes after he fell, hit his head, and lay on the floor bleeding. Surveillance footage showed the resident falling directly in front of one of the nurses who walked away and left him on the floor “bleeding and crawling for help”. A third nurse, who found the resident and“dragged” him back to his room, pled guilty to charges of neglect.
- It is becoming increasingly common for criminal charges to be filed directly against nursing home employees as a result of their failure to act quickly and with appropriate professional and emotional care and concern during the course of a resident injury or death. It is important to remember that video surveillance catches the “emotional charge” of a response to a situation and can have serious consequences for a nursing home employee who appears to not have a sense of urgency regarding a resident in need.
