cms_MT: 5

In collaboration with The Seattle Times, Big Local News is providing full-text nursing home deficiencies from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). These files contain the full narrative details of each nursing home deficiency cited regulators. The files include deficiencies from Standard Surveys (routine inspections) and from Complaint Surveys. Complete data begins January 2011 (although some earlier inspections do show up). Individual states are provides as CSV files. A very large (4.5GB) national file is also provided as a zipped archive. New data will be updated on a monthly basis. For additional documentation, please see the README.

This data as json, copyable

rowid facility_name facility_id address city state zip inspection_date deficiency_tag scope_severity complaint standard eventid inspection_text filedate
5 BENEFIS SENIOR SERVICES 275012 2621 15TH AVE S GREAT FALLS MT 59405 2017-03-09 371 E 0 1 KTFZ11 Based on observation, record review, and interview, the facility failed to prepare and serve food under sanitary conditions; failed to date foods when the foods were removed from their original containers; failed to ensure nursing staff wore aprons and contained their hair during food preparation and service in the kitchen (Goodnow); and failed to clean food contact or non-contact surfaces in the cottage kitchens. This deficient practice had the potential to affect all residents that received service from the kitchens in the cottages. The facility also failed to ensure food safety by allowing a freezer cooling unit to defrost and drip onto cases of food stored in the Westview kitchen walk-in freezer. This had the potential to affect all residents receiving food from the Westview kitchen. Findings include: 1. During an observation on 3/7/17 at 12:10 p.m., staff member F was washing dishes in the kitchen of the Goodnow cottage and staff member BB was setting food trays with silverware, tray cards and napkins. Neither of the staff members were wearing aprons. Both of the CNA's scrub tops (uniforms) were contacting the kitchen counters. At 12:15 p.m., staff member BB started to scoop soup into cups. She was not wearing a hair net or an apron. During this same observation, staff member F stated they pretty much did everything, in addition to their nursing tasks (bathing and toileting of residents), and dish washing, food preparation, kitchen inventory, food orders, and stocking the refrigerators. She stated homemakers also helped with dinner service and dish washing as needed. She stated they wore hair nets when they entered the culinary side of the kitchen only, when they were beyond the yellow line. At 12:55 p.m., staff member BB was wearing an apron and a hair net and was in the kitchen. Staff member C stated it was because staff member BB went behind the yellow line. Staff member BB stated she was preparing a grilled cheese sandwich for a resident. 2. During an observation on 3/7/17 at 5:10 p.m., staff members [NAME] and I were in the kitchen in Goodnow cottage setting up for the evening meals. Neither of the staff members had donned aprons and hair nets when completing the tasks. They both leaned on the kitchen counters, and their uniforms came in contact with the kitchen counters. 3. Tour of the Ario cottage kitchen During an observation on 3/8/17 at 10:41 a.m., the following concerns were identified and documented: - The lower cupboard doors, located under the food warmer, were covered with dried food debris and stains on them. - The gasket to the small freezer, located on the culinary side, had an unknown fuzzy substance and food debris on it. - The lower gasket of the left door of the reach-in cooler, located on the culinary side, was stained and filled with sticky food substance. - Six ice cream containers, in the front side kitchen refrigerator freezer compartment,were opened and mostly consumed. They were not marked with the container open dates. Labels were stuck on these containers, but they were not filled out by the staff. - Five of the six Ziploc bags full of frozen raw cookies were not marked with dates of use or expiration, although perishable. During an interview on 3/8/17 at 11:10 a.m., staff member CC stated the staff were only responsible to clean the front side of the cottage kitchens. The culinary sides were cleaned by the kitchen staff. Staff member CC also stated when they opened the ice cream containers, they had to labeled it with the open date. She stated she was just going to mark the ice cream with open dates. She was told that at least 3 containers were almost empty, and she could not accurately guess the open dates. This was the task of the person who opened the container. She said they did not have cleaning schedules. She stated they cleaned the kitchen during downtimes or on the weekends. During an interview on 3/8/17 at 11:12 a.m., staff member Q stated the opened ice cream containers, found in the refrigerator that day, needed to be disposed of since they were not dated when the containers were opened. She said the containers were labeled, and the labels were left blank because CNAs and/or homemakers did not mark the items when they opened the container for consumption. 4. Tour of the TCC Cottage Kitchen During an observation of the TCC Cottage Kitchen on 3/8/17 at 11:16 a.m., the following concerns were documented: - The gaskets to the refrigerator and the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, located in the front kitchen, were showed an accumulation of food debris. - A Ziploc bag of the frozen cookies, located in the front kitchen refrigerator, was not dated. The frozen cookies were portioned into a Ziploc bag after being removed from their original packaging. The freshness of the cookies could not be determined. - On the culinary side of the kitchen, beyond the yellow line, two lower cabinet shelves, located under the food warmer, were damaged, the surface coating/laminate was missing and exposing the particle board, creating uncleanable porous surfaces. At the same time, the shelves were covered in large, dried, brown colored stains. - The plate warmer housing the china was left uncovered. This was allowed during meal service but between meals the plates must be covered to prevent potential dust or other contaminants landing on the china. - The culinary side of the reach-in cooler's gaskets, for both of the doors, were filled with food debris and dried stains. - The tip of the whipped cream tube was uncovered and exposed to air. - The ice scoop was left uncovered. 5. Tour of the Goodnow Cottage Kitchen During an observation on 3/8/17 at 11:26 a.m., the following concerns were documented: - The trash can, located in the culinary side of the kitchen, was covered with dried stains and food splatter. - The ice scoop was not covered. - The gasket to the small freezer, located on the culinary side, had a unknown fuzzy substance and was filled with food debris. - The gasket to the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, located in the front kitchen, was filled with food debris. The gasket was torn at the top of the right door of the same refrigerator. - The range oven needed to be cleaned. The interior side of the oven door, and the bottom surface, was covered in black and brown color stains and burnt debris. During an interview on 3/9/17 at 9:00 a.m., staff member GG stated he would visit these identified dietary issues in a timely manner. 6. During an observation on 3/7/17 at 10:20 a.m., the cooling unit of the walk in freezer was found to have ice build-up on it. The ice had thawed and refrozen. During that process, water had dripped onto a case of pastry dough, a case of brussel sprouts, a case of chopped spinach, and then refrozen. During an interview on 3/7/17 at 10:45 a.m., staff member FF said a new food service company had taken over four days ago, and the freezer door had been left open a lot due to boxes of frozen food being moved in and out of the freezer. Staff member FF said a lot of rearranging had been going on in the freezer, and the freezer door would be left open when that was occurring. Staff member FF said kitchen staff were supposed to shut the freezer fan off when the freezer door was left open for an extended period of time, to reduce the defrost cycle, which would in turn reduce the ice build up on the cooling unit. 2020-09-01