Butte Home Health and Hospice

The agency failed to inform one out of 17 sampled patients (Patient 12) of their patient rights when Licensed Nurse (LN) A did not provide information regarding the state toll free home health telephone hotline number (a number that a patient could call if they needed to file a complaint or had…

The agency failed to ensure two of 17 sampled patients (Patients 9 and 17) received a timely start of care (admission to the agency), within 48 hours of referral, or within 48 hours of the patient's return home, or on the physicians ordered start of care date.

The agency failed to ensure additional ordered therapies were provided timely to meet patient needs within 5 days unless otherwise ordered by the physician (Patient 3, 5, 6,14 and 16).

The agency failed to have an individualized plan of care (POC, Physicians orders) for pertinent diagnoses along with medications and treatments for three of 17 sampled patients (Patient 2, 11 and 16).

The agency failed to follow a physician order for one out of 17 sampled patients (Patient 17) when ordered laboratory testing and services (collection of blood samples, used to manage a patient’s health) were not completed.

The facility failed to follow standard precautions to prevent the transmission of infections and communicable diseases when staff did not follow appropriate bag technique (the process of accessing the supply bag in a specific manner that prevents contamination) in the home.

The agency failed to ensure one of 17 sampled patients physician's order was recorded in the plan of care (Patient 8).

The agency did not ensure conformance with physician's orders when temperature protocols were not followed for one of 16 sampled patients plan of care (Patient 7).

The facility failed to ensure staff followed accepted Infection Control standards for one of 16 patients (Patient 9), when Licensed Nurse (LN) A did not follow bag technique (the method used to retrieve and replace supplies in the nursing bag without contaminating other items in the bag) during a…

The agency did not obtain one of 16 patient's or/and legal representative's signature confirming that they had been informed and received a copy of a admission agreement, and a notice of his rights and responsibilities before Patient 1's initial evaluation (start of care).

The agency failed to ensure that nursing documentation of the comprehensive assessment was completed and entered into the record for one of 16 sampled patients (Patient 10), when the cardiovascular (heart and circulatory system) section of the comprehensive assessment was left blank.

The agency did not ensure a complete review of one of 16 sampled patients drug regimen review was completed when there was no response from the physician when Patient 14's current medications were identified to have major interactions.

The agency failed to conduct an interdisciplinary case conference (IDT, a meeting of staff from a variety of care disciplines to share clinical information and plan care) for one of seven sampled patients (Patient 16).

The agency failed to provide professional services for one of 16 sampled Patients as indicated in the plan of care (Patient 7).

The facility did not ensure one of 16 sampled patients (Patient 13) received an onsite visit no less frequent than every 14 days by an appropriate skilled professional who was familiar with the patient to assess the quality of care and services provided by the Home Health Aide (HHA).