cms_AK: 48

In collaboration with The Seattle Times, Big Local News is providing full-text nursing home deficiencies from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). These files contain the full narrative details of each nursing home deficiency cited regulators. The files include deficiencies from Standard Surveys (routine inspections) and from Complaint Surveys. Complete data begins January 2011 (although some earlier inspections do show up). Individual states are provides as CSV files. A very large (4.5GB) national file is also provided as a zipped archive. New data will be updated on a monthly basis. For additional documentation, please see the README.

Data source: Big Local News · About: big-local-datasette

This data as json, copyable

rowid facility_name facility_id address city state zip inspection_date deficiency_tag scope_severity complaint standard eventid inspection_text filedate
48 WRANGELL MEDICAL CENTER LTC 25015 P.O. BOX 1081 WRANGELL AK 99929 2019-04-24 761 D 0 1 FNNN11 **NOTE- TERMS IN BRACKETS HAVE BEEN EDITED TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIALITY** Based on record review, observation and interview the facility failed to label drugs and biologicals in accordance with currently accepted professional practices. Specifically, the facility failed to: 1) ensure the expiration date on a bottle of [MEDICATION NAME] tablets (a heart medication to treat and prevent chest pain caused due to heart complications) was readable for 1 resident (#1), out of 12 medication drawers inspected and 2) ensure glucometer control solutions (solutions used to perform quality checks on glucometers (a device that measures blood sugar concentrations in the blood) to ensure accurate readings) were properly labeled with open dates. This failed practice placed residents at risk for not receiving effective and accurate nursing interventions for potentially life-threatening conditions. Findings: Resident #1 Record review on 4/15-19/19 revealed Resident #1 was admitted to the facility with a [DIAGNOSES REDACTED]. Further review revealed Resident #1 had a pacemaker (a small device implanted near the heart that provides a small electric stimulation to help the heart beat more regularly). Review of the most recent MDS (Minimum Data Set, a federally required nursing assessment) assessment, a quarterly assessment dated [DATE], revealed Resident #1 was coded as having unspecified [MEDICAL CONDITION] (an irregular, often rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow) and [MEDICAL CONDITIONS] of native coronary artery (a buildup of plaque inside the artery walls in the heart which causes narrowing of the arteries and slows the blood flow. This affects the blood supply to the heart). Review of Resident #1's medical record revealed a medication order for [MEDICATION NAME] 0.4mg tablet (sublingual - under the tongue) every 5 minutes as needed for chest pain. Call (doctor) if no relief after 3rd dose. Monitor for [MEDICAL CONDITION] (low blood pressure) [MEDICATION NAME]. Observation on 4/17/19 at 11:24 am, of Resident #1's medication drawer in the nurse's medication cart, revealed a bottle of [MEDICATION NAME] sublingual 0.4mg/tab. 25 tab bottle with 5 tabs left within the bottle. Further review revealed the expiration date was unreadable. During an interview on 4/17/19 at 11:24 am, Registered Nurse (RN) #1 stated he/she could not read the expiration date on the [MEDICATION NAME] sublingual tablet bottle. During an interview on 4/17/19 at 12:02 pm, the Pharmacy Nurse stated he/she could not read the expiration date on the [MEDICATION NAME] sublingual tablet bottle. He/she could not state how long this particular bottle of [MEDICATION NAME] has been in Resident #1's medication drawer. Glucometer Control Solutions Observation on 4/17/19 at 11:24 am, of the nurse's medication cart revealed an Accu-check glucometer kit. Further review revealed 2 control solutions bottle, one labeled Control 1 for the low range readings and one labeled Control 2 for the high range readings. There were no open dates written on either bottle. Additional review of the bottles revealed instructions Discard 3 months after opening. During an interview on 4/17/19 at 11:38 am, RN #1 stated the Accu-check control bottles Control 1 and Control 2 did not have open dates on the bottles. He/she further stated the control bottles expire 3 months after they were opened. He/she could not state when they were opened. During an interview on 4/19/19 at 11:00 am, the Director of Nursing (DON) stated there was no facility policy on glucometer quality control. 2020-09-01