Title 38

SECTION 51.320

51.320 Quality of care.

§ 51.320 Quality of care.

The State home must provide each resident with the care described in this subpart in accordance with the assessment and comprehensive care plan.

(a) Reporting of sentinel events. (1) A sentinel event is an adverse event that results in the loss of life or limb or permanent loss of function.

(2) Examples of sentinel events are as follows:

(i) Any resident death, paralysis, coma or other major permanent loss of function associated with a medication error;

(ii) Any suicide of a resident;

(iii) Assault, homicide or other crime resulting in resident death or major permanent loss of function; or

(iv) A resident fall that results in death or major permanent loss of function as a direct result of the injuries sustained in the fall.

(3) The State home must report sentinel events to the Director no later than 24 hours after identification. The VA medical center of jurisdiction must report sentinel events by notifying the VA Network Director (10N1-10N22) and the Director, Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care - Operations (10NC4) no later than 24 hours after notification.

(4) The State home must establish a mechanism to review and analyze a sentinel event resulting in a written report to be submitted to the VA Medical Center of jurisdiction no later than 10 working days following the event. The purpose of the review and analysis of a sentinel event is to prevent injuries to residents, visitors, and personnel, and to manage those injuries that do occur and to minimize the negative consequences to the injured individuals and the State home.

(b) Activities of daily living. Based on the comprehensive assessment of a resident, the State home must ensure that a resident's abilities in activities of daily living do not diminish unless circumstances of the individual's clinical condition demonstrate that diminution was unavoidable, and the resident is given appropriate treatment and services to maintain or improve his activities of daily living. This includes the resident's ability to:

(1) Bathe, dress, and groom;

(2) Transfer and ambulate;

(3) Toilet;

(4) Eat; and

(5) Talk or otherwise communicate.

(c) Vision and hearing. To ensure that residents receive proper treatment and assistive devices to maintain vision and hearing, the State home must, if necessary, assist the resident:

(1) In making appointments; and

(2) By arranging for transportation to and from the office of a practitioner specializing in the treatment of vision or hearing impairment or the office of a professional specializing in the provision of vision or hearing assistive devices.

(d) Mental and psychosocial functioning. Based on the comprehensive assessment of a resident, the State home must assist a resident who displays mental or psychosocial adjustment difficulty obtain appropriate treatment and services to correct the assessed problem.

(e) Accidents. The State home must ensure that:

(1) The resident environment remains as free of accident hazards as possible; and

(2) Each resident receives adequate supervision and assistive devices to prevent accidents.

(f) Nutrition. The State home must follow § 51.120(j) regarding nutrition in providing domiciliary care.

(g) Special needs. The State home must provide residents with the following services, if needed:

(1) Injections;

(2) Colostomy, ureterostomy, or ileostomy care;

(3) Respiratory care;

(4) Foot care; and

(5) Non-customized or non-individualized prosthetic devices.

(h) Unnecessary drugs. The State home must ensure that the standards set forth in § 51.120(m) regarding unnecessary drugs are followed in providing domiciliary care.

(i) Medication errors. The State home must ensure that the standards set forth in § 51.120(n) regarding medication errors are followed in providing domiciliary care.

(The Office of Management and Budget has approved the information collection requirements in this section under control number 2900-0160)

---