Choctaw Residential Center: Dirty Room Ignored for Years - MS
"I was just in this room yesterday and didn't even notice it," the administrator said.
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See the Derila PillowThe resident had a different account of how long the problem had gone on. "It's been dirty like this for a long time," she told the inspector.
Resident 11 has lived at Choctaw Residential Center, a nursing facility at 135 Residential Center Road, since February 2012. That is thirteen years. She came to the facility with diagnoses that included Major Depressive Disorder, Unspecified Kidney Failure, and Anxiety Disorder. According to a cognitive assessment completed in January 2025, she scored a 15 on the Brief Interview for Mental Status, the highest possible score. She is fully cognitively intact. She knows what her room looks like. She knew the curtain was dirty. She had been living with it.
The inspection took place on March 5 and 6, 2025. During an observation that morning, inspectors noted the room was dirty and stained and needed to be, in their words, pulled down and cleaned. The privacy curtain, which in a nursing home room serves as the primary barrier between a resident and anyone entering the space, was described as extremely dirty.
The administrator confirmed what the inspector could see. She did not dispute it. She said she hadn't noticed.
That answer, unremarkable in tone, carries weight when you consider what it means for a resident who cannot simply get up and wash a curtain herself, cannot easily demand that staff replace it, and has been watching it hang there, presumably for months or longer, in the room where she eats and sleeps and spends most of her hours.
Nursing homes are required to provide a homelike environment. The inspection cited this deficiency under that standard, with a finding of minimal harm or potential for actual harm and noted that few residents were affected. In the language of federal inspection reports, that is toward the lower end of severity. It does not carry the weight of a medication error or an unwitnessed fall. There are no dramatic consequences documented here, no hospitalization, no injury.
What there is, instead, is something harder to quantify. A woman in her thirteenth year at a facility, cognitively sharp enough to track every detail of her surroundings, watching her room go uncleaned and unseen by the people responsible for it. Telling an inspector that yes, it has been like this for a long time. And an administrator, walking into that same room the day before, seeing nothing wrong.
The inspection report does not say whether the curtain was replaced after the surveyor's visit. It does not say whether anyone apologized to Resident 11 or explained how the oversight had gone on so long. It does not say whether she was asked what else in her room had been neglected, or for how long.
What it records is a single exchange: an inspector who noticed, a resident who had been waiting for someone to notice, and an administrator who had not.
Choctaw Residential Center has housed this resident longer than many nursing home employees stay in the field. Thirteen years is a long time to live somewhere. It is also, apparently, long enough to stop seeing what is right in front of you.
Resident 11 had not stopped seeing it.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Choctaw Residential Center from 2025-03-06 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
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Last verified: November 12, 2026 · Our methodology
Choctaw Residential Center in CHOCTAW, MS was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 6, 2025.
"I was just in this room yesterday and didn't even notice it," the administrator said.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.