North Ridge Health and Rehab: Assessment Failure - MN
The woman identified in inspection records as Resident 42 returned to North Ridge Health and Rehab sometime before late January 2025 after a hospitalization for a stroke. She came back a different person. Where she had once been able to bear weight, transfer on her own, and move freely around the facility, she now needed help eating. Her wheelchair mobility was gone. Her ability to transfer independently was gone. Her family member told inspectors she had become mostly non-verbal, describing her before the stroke as "a social butterfly" who would go outside on her own to socialize while smoking.
What didn't change was the facility's paperwork. Nobody completed a Significant Change in Status Assessment.
A Significant Change in Status Assessment, known in Medicare compliance shorthand as an SCSA, is the formal mechanism that triggers a comprehensive review of a resident's care plan when something major shifts in their condition. The MDS nurse told inspectors on March 7 that an SCSA should be initiated when a resident experiences two changes in activities of daily living needs. Resident 42 had experienced at least three: her wheelchair mobility, her transfer status, and her ability to eat without assistance.
The MDS nurse's explanation for the delay was that the facility wanted to give her a few weeks in therapy first, to see if she was progressing. Resident 42 started physical and occupational therapy on January 29. She was discharged from that therapy on February 26, nearly a month later, without the assessment having been completed. Inspectors arrived on March 7. It still hadn't been done.
When the MDS nurse was walked through the specifics during the interview, the response was direct: "This would be a good time to initiate a SCSA for R42."
A good time. Weeks after she came back from the hospital unable to feed herself or wheel herself to the door.
The director of nursing, interviewed the same morning, confirmed the assessment should have been completed when Resident 42 returned from the hospital, and acknowledged it would have triggered other comprehensive assessments as well. "I think we could have done better by her," the director of nursing said.
That admission sits at the center of what inspectors documented. The SCSA isn't a bureaucratic formality. It's the mechanism that forces a facility to look at a resident whole, to ask whether the care plan written for the woman who could wheel herself outside still makes any sense for the woman who can no longer speak in full sentences. Without it, the old plan stays in place. Staff continue working from a picture of a resident that no longer exists.
Resident 42's family member described the contrast plainly. Before the stroke, she moved around on her own. She socialized. She went outside. After, she communicated in yes and no responses, if at all.
Inspectors requested the facility's policy on MDS assessments. The facility did not provide it.
The deficiency was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting a small number of residents. That classification reflects the regulatory floor, not the ceiling of what the lapse meant for one woman whose care plan went unreviewed while she relearned, or failed to relearn, how to move through the world after a stroke.
Her family member remembered who she was before. The facility, for weeks, was still acting like that person was the one living there.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for North Ridge Health and Rehab from 2025-03-07 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.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
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Last verified: November 10, 2026 · Our methodology
NORTH RIDGE HEALTH AND REHAB in NEW HOPE, MN was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 7, 2025.
She came back a different person.
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.