A nursing home in Festus, Mo., has lost eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement after federal inspection found the facility failed to provide enough food for residents and violated standards for cleanliness and care, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Residents of 79-bed Benchmark Healthcare told inspectors over the summer that they were hungry. A July report from CMS subsequently stated the nursing home facility "failed to ensure a consistent and sufficient amount of food in the facility, including nutritional supplements, to meet the nutritional needs of the residents," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Inspectors discovered the facility's "walk-in freezer contained two brown bags of french fries, six ice cream bars and eight small bowls of a product that appeared to be ice cream," according to the report. Two other freezers were empty.
Staff members told inspectors the facility had not received a shipment of food in a month because the vendor wasn't paid, according to the report. The staff had been spending their own money at grocery stores to buy food for the residents, but could not stock more than one or two day's worth. Federal standards require such facilities to be stocked at all times with three day's worth of perishable food and a week's worth of nonperishable food, according to the report.
Federal inspectors also found the facility had not paid its pharmacy bill, and staff failed to give four residents their medications for epilepsy, heart failure, urinary tract infections and mental illness, a follow-up inspection in August uncovered.
The facility was cited for lack of cleanliness and basic maintenance, including 1- to 2-foot weeds growing around the building, peeling paint, loose baseboards, black spots on shower ceilings and dirty bathroom floors.
An attorney for the nursing home's operator said he believes all of the residents have already been moved, according to the report.