New London Sub-Acute: Resident Barred from Own Care Meetings - CT
The resident, identified in inspection records as Resident #43, lives with dementia, hypertensive heart disease with heart failure, and osteoarthritis. She uses a manual wheelchair and needs significant help with personal hygiene and transfers. But on the question of mental sharpness, the facility's own assessment told a clear story: she scored a 15 out of 15 on a standardized cognitive screening, indicating no cognitive impairment whatsoever.
When an inspector sat down with her on March 18, 2025, she said plainly that she was not getting invited to her Resident Care Conferences and that she would like to be.
Inspectors pulled the records. Care conferences for Resident #43 had been held five times between October 2023 and February 2025, on October 24, 2023, February 26, 2024, May 29, 2024, October 28, 2024, and February 4, 2025. Not one of those meeting records indicated whether she had been invited, whether she attended, or whether she had declined.
That's a span of roughly 16 months. Five meetings about her physical, emotional, and social needs. No trace of her in any of them.
When inspectors interviewed a social worker at the facility on March 24, the explanation that emerged was striking. Social Worker #2 confirmed that Resident #43 had not been invited to her care planning meetings. The reason, the social worker said, was a request from the resident's conservator, who did not want her attending because she "takes over the meeting by voicing his/her concerns."
A conservator had, in other words, asked staff to keep a cognitively intact resident out of meetings about her own care, and staff had complied, apparently without question, for over a year.
There was no documentation of that request. None. The social worker could not produce anything in writing showing the conservator had ever made it.
Inspectors attempted to reach the conservator directly. Those attempts were unsuccessful.
The facility's own care plan policy states that care plans are to address residents' needs on an individualized basis and account for physical, cognitive, and psychosocial concerns. The care plan for Resident #43, dated February 28, 2025, listed interventions that included inviting her to scheduled activities and special events. The meetings specifically designed to review and shape her care were a different matter.
The social worker told inspectors that when residents do attend a conference, it gets noted on a sign-in sheet. When they decline, it goes into social service progress notes. For Resident #43, neither trail existed. There was no sign-in, no note of a declination, no record of an invitation extended and refused.
What she told the inspector was that nobody had asked her.
The violation was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, the lowest tier on the federal scale. But the finding captures something that doesn't reduce easily to a regulatory category: a woman with a perfect cognitive score, living in a facility because her body requires it, was cut out of conversations about her own life because someone found her too willing to speak up about it.
She told the inspector she wanted to be there. That was apparently never the question anyone had thought to ask her.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for New London Sub-acute and Nursing from 2025-03-27 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: October 30, 2026 · Our methodology
NEW LONDON SUB-ACUTE AND NURSING in WATERFORD, CT was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 27, 2025.
The resident, identified in inspection records as Resident #43, lives with dementia, hypertensive heart disease with heart failure, and osteoarthritis.
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.