Nursing Home Staff’s Failure to Administer CPR Results in $6,000 Fine by the Connecticut State Department of Public Health (DPH)
Failure of nursing home staff to monitor residents for nearly 11 hours, and not performing timely emergency procedures when residents are found unresponsive, may result in substandard quality of care and the submission of false claims
Compliance Perspective – Emergency Procedures
Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing and the Administrator will review policies and procedures involving monitoring and checking residents and performance of timely emergency response protocols.
Training: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing will ensure that staff are trained in the policies and procedures for monitoring/checking residents, the protocols to use for timely emergency response procedures, and that they demonstrate competency.
Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer should personally conduct an audit by reviewing video surveillance tapes where available and conducting personal interviews of residents to verify that staff are performing regular monitoring and checking of residents.
Connecticut’s State Department of Public Health (DPH) recently fined a nursing home $6,000 for the failure of the nursing home’s staff to provide a resident with the required level of care. This action is the result of a crackdown by the DPH and involved fines levied against several of the state’s nursing homes.
On February 16, 2018, a nurse aide found a nursing home resident with lung cancer sitting on the floor unresponsive, not breathing, and with no pulse. Later, the video footage from a surveillance camera revealed that 10 minutes passed after the resident was found to have no pulse by a licensed practical nurse and when CPR was administered. Additionally, the video footage indicated that the resident had not been checked on by staff for almost 11 hours from 6:26 p.m. on February 15, to 5:19 a.m. on February 16.
The resident was pronounced dead after being taken to the hospital.
According to the DPH investigation, the nursing home subsequently terminated the nurse aide, the licensed practical nurse, and a registered nurse.
A spokesperson from the nursing home issued this statement: “[Nursing home name omitted] is committed to providing high-quality care to its patients and residents.” Furthermore, the nursing home reported that since the citation, it has “provided additional staff education and training, and submitted a plan of correction to the state.” The nursing home asserts that it is now in full compliance with state and federal regulations.
