Federal inspectors documented the pest infestation during an August inspection that resulted in immediate jeopardy violations for kitchen cleanliness failures. The facility's registered dietician had been aware of the gnat problem for months, and administrators knew about it but failed to eliminate the infestation despite calling pest control.
On August 18, inspectors touring the kitchen with the dietary manager and administrator observed one live cockroach crawling behind the stove and another in the dry food storage room. Three dead roaches sat in a small red bucket stored under the food prep counter. Large swarms of gnats flew around the dishwashing room.
The dietary manager told inspectors that a bug light in the kitchen was out of order.
Administrator S1ADM said she first became aware of gnats in the kitchen on August 9 when she observed them flying around and called pest control. The pest control company came on August 12, but she confirmed the gnats remained and the treatment was ineffective.
The facility's registered dietician, who conducts quarterly kitchen walkthroughs, had last inspected the entire kitchen on June 19. She told inspectors she had been aware of the ongoing gnat problem for several months and that administration knew about it.
State health inspectors had already cited the facility in June for failing to clean non-food contact surfaces frequently enough to prevent soil accumulation, according to a Louisiana Department of Health violation notice dated June 11.
The administrator claimed she was unaware of cleanliness issues in the kitchen beyond the gnat problem. But an email she sent to the dietary manager on June 5 revealed multiple sanitation violations discovered during a third-party consultant mock survey: staff not wearing beard covers, ice buildup on the refrigerator floor, garlic bread without dates, and food items stored in bags on the floor under shelving.
"I realized I skipped over dietary," the administrator wrote in the email, explaining she had forgotten to address the issues in a meeting.
The regional administrator, who claimed to visit the facility twice weekly and conduct full facility rounds, said he was unaware of any cleanliness issues in the kitchen. When inspectors asked for documentation of his kitchen rounds, none was provided.
The dietary manager, responsible for ensuring daily, weekly and monthly cleaning tasks were completed by kitchen staff, said she was last in the kitchen on August 16, just two days before the federal inspection began. She stated she was responsible for visual checks to ensure sanitation tasks were completed effectively.
The administrator acknowledged she was ultimately responsible for the kitchen as the dietary manager's direct supervisor.
Beyond the kitchen violations, inspectors found the 160-bed facility operating without a qualified social worker. Federal regulations require facilities with more than 120 beds to employ a full-time qualified social worker, but Resthaven had been using the administrator in that role since July.
The administrator holds a master's degree in health administration and bachelor's in nutritional sciences, but lacks the required bachelor's degree in social work or human services field and one year of supervised social work experience in healthcare. The human resources person assisting with social work duties has a bachelor's degree in mass communication with a journalism concentration and no experience working with geriatric populations.
The facility also failed to post proper isolation signage outside the room of a COVID-19 positive resident. Resident #110 was under contact and droplet isolation orders from his physician dated August 15, but inspectors found no signs on or around his door indicating the transmission precautions or required personal protective equipment.
A registered nurse confirmed the resident was COVID-positive and on isolation precautions, acknowledging there should have been signage posted. The facility's own policy requires isolation rooms to be identified with proper signage indicating the type of isolation.
The infection control failures affected six residents who were on transmission-based precautions during the inspection.
Resthaven's pest control violations put all 110 residents who eat meals from the kitchen at risk. The facility's census was 111 residents at the time of inspection.
The registered dietician performs random observations when visiting the facility three times monthly but had not conducted a detailed inspection since her June quarterly review. She reported no cleanliness issues to administration during her random visits, despite being aware of the persistent gnat infestation.
The administrator said she had not entered the kitchen since August 12 when pest control was present, though she remained in the hallway behind the kitchen area. The regional administrator claimed he observed the kitchen on August 12 and saw no pest or cleanliness issues, contradicting the ongoing infestation documented by inspectors.
Kitchen staff continued preparing and serving meals from the roach and gnat-infested facility throughout the period when administrators knew about the pest problems but failed to resolve them. The ineffective pest control treatment left residents consuming food prepared in conditions that violated basic sanitation standards.
The immediate jeopardy designation indicates conditions that pose serious risk to resident health and safety requiring immediate correction. Federal inspectors determined the kitchen cleanliness failures created such conditions at Resthaven, where residents depend on the facility for their daily nutrition in an environment administrators failed to keep free from disease-carrying pests.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Resthaven Nursing & Rehab Center, LLC from 2024-08-20 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
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