Every finding on record at Eh Health Home Health of the Northwest LLC

An Emergency Preparedness survey was conducted by Healthcare Licensing and Surveys on 11/7/24.

A recertification survey was conducted by Healthcare Licensing and Surveys from 11/4/24 to 11/7/24.

Infection Prevention CFR(s): 484.70(a) Standard: Infection Prevention. The HHA must follow accepted standards of practice, including the use of standard precautions, to prevent the transmission of infections and communicable diseases. This STANDARD is not met as evidenced by: Based on observation, staff interview, and policy and procedure review the agency failed to prevent infection during 1 of 4 home visits observations (patient # 6). The findings were: Observation on 11/6/24 at 11:15 AM showed RN #1 was preforming wound care on patient #6. During the observation the RN was going from dirty to clean during a dressing change. She failed to ensure she doffed her gloves, performed hand hygiene, and donned clean gloves before dressing the wound. Interview with the RN right after the home visit revealed the wound care was a clean dressing change, and confirmed she failed to change gloves prior to applying the clean dressing. Interview with the administrator on 11/7/24 at 3:38 PM revealed the nurse should had changed her gloves and performed hand hygiene between the dirty and clean dressing change. Review of policy "Wound dressing application, home care" revised 2/20/24 showed "...Discard the soiled dressing in the sealable waterproof trash bag. Remove and discard your soiled gloves. Perform hand hygiene. Put on new gloves... Apply topical wound treatments to the wound bed..."

A recertification survey was conducted by Healthcare Licensing and Surveys from 10/11/2021 to 10/14/2021. In addition, a COVID-19 focused infection control survey was conducted. Based on the findings of the survey team, it was determined that no deficiencies were identified pertaining to the infection control survey.

Promptly alert relevant physician of changes CFR(s): 484.60(c)(1) The HHA must promptly alert the relevant physician(s) or allowed practitioner(s) to any changes in the patient's condition or needs that suggest that outcomes are not being achieved and/or that the plan of care should be altered. This ELEMENT is not met as evidenced by: Based on record review, agency staff and medical staff interview, and policy review, the agency failed to promptly alert the physician of changes in the patient's condition for 1 of 10 sample patients (#9). The findings were: Review of the admission assessment showed patient #9 received home health services during the certification period 4/20/21-6/18/21. Further review showed "Patient complaining of pain in lower back and abdomen, medications not controlling appropriately. Will discuss with Dr Ebbert ''. The patient reported pain as 5 out of 10 (5/10), "day and night", with a recent range of 3/10 to 10/10. Interview of RN on10/14/21 9:30 AM verified the patient had uncontrolled pain on admission. The following concerns were identified: a. Interview of physician medical staff on 10/14/21 10:00 AM confirmed there were no notifications in the medical record regarding the patient on or near 4/20/21 from agency staff. The medical staff member further verified communications to the physician were "routinely" logged in the patient medical record when received and the physician was "tagged" with the notification. b. Review of the policy "Coordination of services'' dated 10/16/2020, showed "Professional staff coordinate services with the physician. Staff...Promptly alert the physician to any changes which suggest a need to modify the plan of care."