Compliance Perspective – Abuse:
The Compliance Officer, Risk Manager, Administrator, and Compliance Committee must ensure that the facility’s policies and procedures adequately address prohibited possession on the facility’s premises of any items that may be used as offensive or defensive weapons by staff, residents or visitors, e.g., pepper spray, animal repellent, knives, or firearms. It is critical that staff receive training on responding to active shooter situations and other occurrences where an individual has obtained and misused a device, and on the prohibited possession of these items and substances on the premises. Include in the training what to do when prohibited devices and/or substances are found and how and to whom they should be reported. Education for residents and their family members can be presented either individually or through the Resident and Family Councils. Together the Compliance Offic
er, DON, and others as appropriate can develop and implement an audit designed to identify any prohibited items and substances that may be in a resident’s possession. Items discovered should be removed and reported to the Compliance Officer, DON, and the Administrator.
Firefighters needed to wear scuba gear when they were called to the assisted living center after a resident, disgruntled over the care he received, sprayed a male staff member with the bear repellent he had purchased online.
Ironically, there is a sign posted outside the assisted living center prohibiting guns, but there is no sign posted prohibiting anyone from discharging a powerful, smelly, pepper-like bear repellent in the facility.
The bear repellent contained Capsaicin (a pepper-like substance) and caused the sprayed staff member and several other staff members to need to be taken to the emergency room for treatment. The residents in the center had to be evacuated to a nearby facility and kept away from the building for several hours.
Called the “Frontiersman” the bear repellent is publicized by its manufacturer as having an “industry-topping range of 35 feet, a dual-propellant delivery system, a 9.2-ounce capacity and the capability of discharging 1.84 ounces of spray per second when it was discharged.”
Although it has been compared to a pepper spray, “The National Park Service says bear spray is normally used to stop aggressive behavior in bears and is not the same as human pepper spray.”
This incident occurred on May 22, and the resident has relocated to another facility in another state. It is not known whether the resident involved in the incident has Alzheimer’s disease or another illness that could have impaired his judgment.
The police chief reports that an arrest warrant has been issued and the County Attorney’s Office will be approached regarding the seeking of a possible grand jury indictment on a possible charge that ranges from disorderly conduct to felony assault. A Class A felony “alleging public exposure to a toxic substance along with the evacuation” may be punishable for between 7.5 to 15-years imprisonment.
