Nursing Home Being Sued Over Resident’s Sexual Assault of Another Resident
A lawsuit filed recently against a Pennsylvania nursing home alleges negligence and seeks damages from the nursing home and three employees related to a resident’s sexual assault against another resident. The victim suffers from partial paralysis and has severe cognitive issues impairing her ability to speak. The suit alleges that the male resident with dementia was inadequately supervised and allowed to roam the facility’s hallways, frequently enter the rooms of female residents, attempt to have sexual contact with both female staff and residents, and was combative with staff when they would intervene.
When a nurse entered the female resident’s room and discovered the man assaulting her, the nurse tried but was not able to physically interrupt the assault; and, instead of remaining in the room while summoning help, she left the room to get help. When a second nurse entered the room and told the man to stop the assault, he refused. The nurse then physically intervened to stop him.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) investigated the incident and issued three citations that faulted the nursing home for not adequately addressing the male resident’s behavior and wandering, and also faulted the first nurse for leaving the room while the assault continued.
After the incident, the facility relocated the male resident to another unit and revised his care plan to include one-to-one supervision. Prior to that, there were no interventions in place except to encourage him to verbalize his reasons for his noncompliant behavior and to seek possible alternatives to treatments from his physician.
The facility submitted a plan of correction addressing the DOH’s findings, and terminated the employment of the first nurse. It also indicated plans to re-train staff on the facility’s abuse policy to ensure patient safety and to develop individualized care plans to better address the needs of patients with dementia.
The DOH re-inspected the facility and confirmed that the corrective plan had been enacted.
Compliance Perspective
Failure to review and implement individualized care plans for monitoring residents with dementia who wander and exhibit sexually motivated and combative behavior toward other residents and staff members may be considered abuse and neglect and deemed the provision of substandard quality of care, in violation of state and federal regulations.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures to ensure that they adequately address the need for assessment and monitoring of residents with dementia who exhibit behaviors like wandering into other residents’ rooms; seeking sexual contact with other residents and staff members; and combativeness when confronted about their behavior.
- Train staff about abuse and neglect and the importance of implementing adequate, individualized care plans and assessments for all residents, with particular attention to those with dementia or other conditions who may tend to exhibit behaviors that pose a threat to others.
- Periodically audit the care plans of residents with dementia or other diagnoses that may result in demonstration of negative behaviors toward others to determine if they are current and include adequate interventions to provide safety for all.
