Failure to take reasonable precautions to protect residents from sexual abuse could be considered systemic substandard quality of care and result in the submission of false claims
Compliance Perspective – Sexual Abuse
Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Administrator and the Director of Nursing will review policies and procedures for preventing sexual and other types of abuse of residents.
Training: The Compliance and Ethics Officer will ensure that all staff are trained to be alert and responsive to concerns about sexual and other kinds of abuse,especially for residents who are defenseless and unable to communicate.
Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing will conduct an audit to ensure that policies and procedures (education,staff adjustments, cameras, motion detectors, etc.) to prevent sexual and other forms of abuse of any resident are being followed.
A woman in a persistent vegetative state who has been a resident in an Arizona nursing home for over ten years due to a near death drowning accident, recently gave birth to a baby boy.
None of the nursing home staff were aware that the woman was pregnant until she was in the early stages of giving birth. She was moaning, and the staff did not know what was wrong with her. One of the staff nurses delivered the baby who seems to be healthy.
The woman required constant care which would mean that there were numerous people who had access to her room.
The local police are actively investigating the case. Investigators have said very little except to acknowledge that at some point last spring or summer, the woman was sexually assaulted, and she would have had no way to defend herself or to communicate that the assault had occurred.
The nursing home, as a result of the incident, has recently changed its protocol regarding male staff entering a female resident’s room. They are now required to have a female employee accompany them.
