Community Grievance Decision Digest
FOOD, MEALS AND DIETS
THE LAW:
Each patient shall...
"Have a right to a humane
psychological and physical environment within the hospital
facilities..."
§ 51.61(1)(m), Wis. Stats. [Emphasis
added.]
"(a) Each inpatient
shall be provided a nutritional
diet which permits a reasonable choice
of appealing food served in a pleasant manner.
(b) Snacks between meals shall be
accessible to inpatients on all living units, except when
contraindicated for individual patients.
(c) All inpatients shall be allowed a
minimum of 30 minutes per meal and additional time as feasible.
(d) Menu preparation shall
take into account customary
religious, cultural or strongly-held personal convictions of
inpatients."
HFS 94.24(4), Wis. Admin. Code
[emphasis added.]
DECISIONS
-
An inpatient, admitted to county hospital via an “Emergency
Detention” due to suicidal ideation, felt staff
did not provide her enough time and attention in dealing with her
concerns - especially, why she
was not eating meals. She was depressed during much of her six
days there. She refused several meals. She
wanted her meals served to her
in her own room so she would not have to sit near a certain male
peer. There was considerable charting as to the staff’s plan to
encourage the patient to eat meals and have proper nutrition and food
intake. But two days passed with the patient not coming out for meals,
and staff seemed to not be doing anything more to explore why she was
not eating, and/or in what circumstances she would be able or willing
to eat meals. Patients
have a right to refuse meals.
But, in this instance there were medical reasons why proper
food intake was important, and the charting also stressed that eating
meals was to be encouraged. That
being the case, one might reasonably expect staff to do more than
simply observe that a patient was not coming out to eat. They let her
eat one meal in her room, then gave her a “take it or leave it” ultimatum.
What really was the goal? Was
it to encourage nutritional intake?
Or to try to force compliance with the unit expectation that
patients come out of their rooms to eat in the congregate setting?
There was no documentation as to why
they took that stance. No
other approaches to encourage her to eat were made. Under these
circumstances, the lack of any
documented team discussion or decision was a violation
of the patient’s right to specific and objective documentation of
the reasons and rationale for the decision that was made.
(Level III decision in Case No. 99-SGE-08 on 3/23/01)
Last Updated: November 07, 2006 |
