St. Vincent's Prospera: Kitchen Sanitation Violations - ND
Federal inspectors walked into the kitchen at St. Vincent's - A Prospera Community on the morning of March 31, 2025, and found all of it. They came back four days later. None of it had changed.
The facility, located at 1021 N. 26th Street in Bismarck, serves food to many residents. Inspectors cited it for failing to maintain cold storage areas and kitchen equipment in a sanitary condition, a violation with the potential to contaminate food and cause foodborne illness.
What they found was not subtle. In the walk-in cooler, inspectors documented an accumulation of thick, dark black dust and dirt on the condenser fan, and additional dust buildup on the ceiling and walls around two separate fans. The walk-in freezer had the same problem: dark black dust and dirt on the fan, and dust coating the wall and ceiling around it. These are the spaces where food is stored, where air circulates across everything residents will eventually eat.
Then there was the oven.
The handles on one reach-in oven were wrapped in peeling, tattered duct tape. Under food safety standards, a surface that cannot be routinely cleaned and sanitized because of the material covering it can harbor pathogens. Duct tape, especially duct tape that is peeling and frayed, is not a cleanable surface. It is a surface that traps debris, moisture, and bacteria in every torn edge and gap.
An administrative dietary staff member, identified in inspection records only as Staff Member 9, was present for the final walkthrough on April 3. He confirmed the duct tape was there. He confirmed he expected his staff to clean the black dust and dirt from the fans, walls, and ceilings in both the cooler and the freezer.
He confirmed it, in other words, as something that should have already been done.
The inspection report notes the violation caused minimal harm or potential for actual harm, the lowest level on the federal harm scale. But the rating reflects what inspectors could document, not what accumulates over time in a kitchen where fans go uncleaned and oven handles are patched with tape instead of repaired. Dust on condenser fans in food storage areas is not a one-day problem. The thickness inspectors described, dark and black and built up across both the cooler and the freezer, takes time.
The deficiency falls under federal food safety standards governing how food must be protected from contamination and what surfaces on kitchen equipment must be capable of being cleaned. Surfaces that cannot be effectively washed, rinsed, and sanitized can build up pathogenic organisms that transfer to food. The standards exist because the consequences of ignoring them land not on the kitchen staff but on the people eating the meals.
At St. Vincent's, those people are nursing home residents, many of them elderly, many with compromised immune systems, many without the ability to simply choose somewhere else to eat.
The initial inspection occurred March 31. The follow-up occurred April 3. On both visits, the dust was there. On both visits, the tape was there. The dietary staff member who confirmed the problems on April 3 did not dispute what inspectors found. He acknowledged it.
What the inspection record does not say is when the fans were last cleaned, how long the duct tape had been on the oven handles, or whether anything was corrected after inspectors left.
The dust on the fans, the peeling tape on the oven handles, the air circulating through both coolers across food that residents had no way of knowing was stored there, all of it documented, confirmed, and left for the facility to address on its own timeline.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for St Vincent's - A Prospera Community from 2025-04-03 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: October 30, 2026 · Our methodology
ST VINCENT'S - A PROSPERA COMMUNITY in BISMARCK, ND was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 3, 2025.
Federal inspectors walked into the kitchen at St.
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.