Embassy of Wyoming Valley: Ombudsman Notice Failure - PA
The resident, identified in inspection records only as Resident 60, was living at the facility on North Pennsylvania Avenue with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat condition, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive lung illness that steadily narrows the airways and makes breathing harder over time. When the facility transferred the resident to the hospital that June, it was a facility-initiated transfer, meaning the nursing home made the call.
That distinction matters. A facility-initiated transfer is exactly the kind of event that Pennsylvania's Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman is supposed to be told about, in writing, so the ombudsman's office can ensure the resident's rights were observed and the transfer was handled properly.
The written notice was never sent.
Inspectors from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reviewed Resident 60's clinical record during a March 14, 2025 inspection and found no documented evidence that the facility had notified the ombudsman's office in writing about the transfer or the reason for it. The resident was eventually readmitted to the facility, though the inspection report does not say when or under what circumstances.
The Nursing Home Administrator confirmed it at 11:45 a.m. on the day of the inspection. There was no documented evidence, the administrator said, that the ombudsman's representative had been informed in writing.
The ombudsman program exists specifically for moments like this one. When a nursing home moves a resident, especially a resident managing serious cardiac and respiratory conditions, that resident is vulnerable. The transfer could be appropriate and necessary. It could also be premature, or poorly documented, or handled in ways that leave the resident without full information about their rights, including the right to appeal. The ombudsman is the outside set of eyes meant to check.
At Embassy of Wyoming Valley, those eyes were never called.
The violation was cited at a level of potential for minimal harm, the lowest tier in the federal deficiency scale, meaning inspectors did not find evidence that Resident 60 was actually hurt by the omission. But the classification reflects what inspectors could document, not necessarily what the resident experienced during a hospitalization that nobody with oversight authority had been told about.
The facility serves residents in Wilkes-Barre, a city in Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania. The inspection covered 21 residents in total. Only one transfer notice failure was identified, involving Resident 60.
The gap between what a facility is supposed to do and what it actually does in the moment of a transfer is often where residents lose ground. A written notice to the ombudsman is not a bureaucratic formality. It is a mechanism that creates accountability, a paper trail, a moment where someone outside the facility has the chance to ask whether everything was done correctly and whether the resident knows their options.
Here, that mechanism failed. A resident with a failing heart and compromised lungs was moved to a hospital, and the one office specifically tasked with advocating for that person's rights learned nothing about it, not on June 28, not in the days that followed, and apparently not until federal inspectors arrived nine months later and started asking questions.
The administrator had no paperwork to show them.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Embassy of Wyoming Valley from 2025-03-14 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 5, 2026 · Our methodology
EMBASSY OF WYOMING VALLEY in WILKES BARRE, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 14, 2025.
When the facility transferred the resident to the hospital that June, it was a facility-initiated transfer, meaning the nursing home made the call.
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.