Nursing Home Barred From Taking New Patients

A Spokane Valley nursing home is barred from admitting new residents after state inspectors found a number of health and safety violations.

The deficiencies at Sullivan Park Care Center, 14820 E. Fourth, were discovered during a recent annual inspection, said Edith Coleman of the state Department of Social and Health Services.

The center was ordered to close its doors to new residents three weeks ago, Coleman said.

“These are citations that put residents at a level of harm,” she said.

Among the violations listed in the 45-page report from the Jan. 28 inspection:

Two nursing assistants were observed moving a resident from a soiled bed to a chair without changing the man’s wet sweatpants. He wound up eating dinner without a change of clothes.

A cook failed to wash his hands and arms of juice from raw meat before preparing mashed potatoes and reaching into a sugar bin. Investigators said the unsafe handling of food placed residents in “immediate jeopardy of food-borne illness.”

Dead insects were found on a windowsill near where clean drinking glasses were stored.

Eating utensils were stored on dirty trays.

Frayed cleaning rags for the food-preparation area were stored in a container of brown, dirty water.

The nursing home filed an improvement plan last week with the state agency in Olympia, according to Sullivan Park Assistant Administrator Linda Godfrey.

“We have addressed those concerns and are moving ahead with the necessary changes,” Godfrey said. “Let me assure you that this is a top priority for us.”

Godfrey said Sullivan Park’s 115 residents are not in any danger because the changes are already being implemented. She declined to specify what those changes are.

Another state inspection is expected next month. If the nursing home hasn’t corrected the problems, the federal Health Care Financing Administration could stop payments on all new admissions.

, DataTimes