complaint·January 24, 2025

Residents, complainant, ED, and WM confirmed that the facility scheduled maintenance services after the odor was first reported on 10/23/2024. The facility’s maintenance director cleaned out bathroom drains and the facility contracted a licensed plumber on 11/01/2024 who removed seven (7) pop-up drains, cleaned and flushed out drains, scrubbed the drains with brushes and bleach, ran hot water to flush out buildup, and reassembled the pop-up drains. The licensed plumber did not observe issues with the drains or pipes. ED stated that no complaints of odor were made to management after the plumbing service. LPA interviewed residents who confirmed that the issue had not been brought up to management after it was first addressed in early November 2024. Residents interviewed do not receive care-services as they are independent, and therefore, caregivers do not enter the private apartments often and cannot detect or report the odor to management if residents do not notify them. On 01/03/2025, it was reported that the Ombudsman conducted a visit, and the odor was observed in a resident’s bathroom. During the initial visit on 01/13/2025, LPA checked for odor in three (3) resident rooms and no odors were noted. While the odor was confirmed by three (3) residents and an outside agency representative, the allegation that the staff is not ensuring the facility is free of odor is not supported, as staff acted to address the issue when it was first reported, and staff were not notified and did not have another way of knowing that the odor was persisting afterwards. Per interview with ED, drain cleanings are conducted monthly but will now be conducted weekly and staff will be monitoring resident rooms for an odor. Staff will also encourage residents to notify them if an odor is observed from their bathrooms so that facility maintenance can act quickly to address the root cause of the odor. Information obtained through interview, record review, and observation did not include evidence sufficient to corroborate the allegation. Although the allegation may have happened or is valid, there is not sufficient evidence to prove the alleged violation did or did not occur, therefore the allegation “Staff does not ensure facility is free of odor” is deemed UNSUBSTANTIATED at this time. No deficiencies cited at this time. Exit interview conducted. A copy of the report was issued.