North Ridge Health and Rehab: Medication Storage Failures - MN
The charge pharmacist the facility identified, referred to in inspection records as CP-E, told inspectors directly: she would not expect to find medications from residents discharged several months ago. She certainly would not expect to find medications from 2021.
Nobody had gotten rid of them.
The inspection, completed March 7, 2025, identified medication storage failures across several categories. Insulin pens were being opened without any label tracking when they were opened or when they would expire. CP-E told inspectors that staff opening an insulin pen should be able to refer to the chart to confirm how many days after opening the pen remained viable. The facility's own medication storage policy, updated as recently as October 2024, said nothing about labeling insulin pens for an open date or expiration date.
Insulin degrades. An open pen left past its viable window delivers unpredictable doses. For diabetic residents, that means blood sugar that cannot be reliably managed, and the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes in an elderly population can move fast.
The refrigerator problem ran alongside this. Medications requiring refrigeration were supposed to be stored in a secured drug room refrigerator at the nurses' station. CP-E explained what she would expect if that refrigerator drifted out of the safe temperature range: staff should correct it immediately, and if it remained out of range after a few days, they should contact the pharmacy to determine whether the medications were still viable. The October 2024 storage policy identified where refrigerated medications should be kept. It said nothing about what temperature that refrigerator needed to maintain, and nothing about what staff should do if it didn't.
A policy that tells staff where to store medications but not at what temperature is a policy with a hole in it large enough to spoil everything inside.
The controlled substances policy, also dated October 2024, stated that the facility would comply with all laws and regulations related to handling, storage, disposal, and documentation of Schedule II and other controlled substances. What inspectors found in the drug room suggested the gap between that written commitment and actual practice was measurable in years.
When a resident is discharged, their remaining medications are supposed to go home with them or be destroyed, with the method depending on who paid for them. CP-E confirmed this. Medications left behind don't become inert. Controlled substances sitting uncounted and untracked create an entirely different category of risk, one that extends beyond the residents who no longer live there.
The inspection tagged the violations at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with some residents affected. That language is regulatory shorthand, and it carries real meaning: inspectors determined that what they found had not yet caused documented serious injury. That determination reflects what was provable at the time of the survey, not what was possible in the weeks and months the medications sat on those shelves.
North Ridge Health and Rehab is located at 5430 Boone Avenue North in New Hope. The facility's own pharmacist consultant described, clearly and without ambiguity, what proper practice looked like. Insulin pens labeled. Refrigerators monitored. Discharged residents' medications removed promptly. The October 2024 policy update that was supposed to govern all of this left each of those specifics out.
The medications from 2021 were still there when she said it.
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 certainly would not expect to find medications from 2021.
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.