Pinewood Healthcare Center: Kitchen Sanitation Failures - GA
Fifty-three of the facility's 56 residents ate food prepared in that kitchen.
Federal inspectors documented the failures during a March 2025 survey, finding that the facility's administrator had not ensured basic oversight of kitchen sanitation and that the dietary manager running the operation was not certified for the job she held.
The dietary manager, interviewed on March 6, told inspectors she did not have her Certified Dietary Manager credential and had not enrolled in an online certification course until January 25 of this year. She said she did not review the sanitation or temperature logs. She also said she had not appointed anyone else to review or monitor them. Nobody was watching.
Her own job description, on file at the facility, listed certification as a dietary manager as a required qualification. It also listed ensuring proper sanitation and safety practices among her assigned tasks.
The administrator, who began working at Pinewood in November 2024, acknowledged during an interview the same afternoon that she knew the dietary manager was not certified and had not hired her for the position. She said she did not monitor the dietary manager and did not ensure oversight of the kitchen. She said her expectation was that the dietary manager was handling the sanitation logs herself.
She also told inspectors she did not make sure sanitation test strips and sanitizing chemicals were ordered promptly after being informed the strips were unavailable, and that she did not know the hot water to the dish machine was not working properly.
The administrator's own job description described her role as planning, organizing, implementing and directing the overall operation of the facility in accordance with state and federal laws, and evaluating outcomes with department heads to determine when action was needed.
When inspectors returned on March 11, the administrator said she had arranged for a dietitian to work alongside the dietary manager every day until the manager obtained her certification. She said she would also have the dietary manager enroll in an education program to help train the dietary staff.
What that arrangement means for the weeks and months before inspectors arrived is a question the report leaves open. The broken thermostat on the dish machine does not appear to have been discovered through any internal monitoring process. It was found during the inspection.
Dish machines in healthcare settings rely on either high-temperature sanitization or chemical sanitization to kill pathogens on plates, utensils and cookware. A malfunctioning thermostat on a high-temperature machine means there is no reliable way to confirm the water reached a temperature sufficient to sanitize. The three-compartment sink, used to wash, rinse and sanitize pots and pans by hand, also lacked proper sanitation, according to inspectors.
Neither problem had generated a corrective response before surveyors walked in, because no one was logging temperatures or testing sanitizer concentrations, and no one had been told to.
CMS rated the deficiency at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting many residents. The facility was cited under F812, which covers food procurement, storage, preparation and service.
Fifty-three people ate off those dishes.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Pinewood Healthcare Center 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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Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: November 7, 2026 · Our methodology
Pinewood Healthcare Center in HAWKINSVILLE, GA was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 14, 2025.
Fifty-three of the facility's 56 residents ate food prepared in that kitchen.
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.