North Auburn Care: Infection Control Failures Found - WA
That admission came from Staff V, a certified nursing assistant at North Auburn Care, during an interview with federal inspectors on April 17, 2025. Inspectors had watched her provide incontinence care to Resident 6 at 12:06 that afternoon. The resident had soiled their brief with loose stool. Staff V cleaned the waste from the catheter tubing, the thin tube threaded into the resident's bladder to drain urine, then swapped her gloves for a clean pair. She did not wash her hands in between.
Nearly six hours later, she confirmed it plainly. She should have performed hand hygiene between the dirty and clean care glove changes. She did not.
The same inspection, conducted April 17 through April 21, documented a second staff member committing a separate chain of infection control failures in the room of Resident 64, who receives nutrition through an enteral feeding tube, a tube that delivers food directly into the stomach.
Staff W entered Resident 64's room without washing their hands. Their surgical mask was sitting below their nose. They reached up with a bare hand and repositioned it. Then they pulled on a pair of gloves, again without performing hand hygiene first.
What followed was a direct procedure on a resident. Staff W instructed Resident 64 to lift their gown, stopped the enteral feeding that was running, and removed the external portion of the feeding tube from the resident's body. They plugged the tube, repositioned the gown, removed the gloves, washed their hands, and left the room.
The hand hygiene that bookended the encounter, once on the way out, was the only time it happened.
The facility's own infection preventionist, identified in the report as Staff P, told inspectors on April 21 exactly what the standard was supposed to be. Staff were expected to wear surgical masks in resident areas. Staff were expected to wash their hands upon entering a resident room, before providing care, between clean and dirty cares, and between glove changes. Staff P laid out the expectation without apparent awareness that inspectors had spent four days watching staff fall short of it.
Hand hygiene failures in nursing homes are not technical oversights. A catheter that carries fecal bacteria into a resident's bladder can cause a urinary tract infection that, in a frail elderly person, can escalate quickly. An enteral feeding tube bypasses the body's ordinary defenses entirely. Contamination introduced at that entry point goes directly into the gastrointestinal tract.
The inspection cited the violations under Washington Administrative Code 388-97-1320, which governs infection control practices in long-term care facilities. The harm level was recorded as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting few residents.
That designation reflects the regulatory category, not a verdict on the residents involved. Resident 6's catheter was cleaned with contaminated hands. Resident 64 had a feeding tube removed and plugged by a staff member who had never washed their hands and had touched their own face with a bare hand minutes before.
Staff V told inspectors she knew the correct procedure. She did not follow it. Staff W was observed from entry to exit, and the hand hygiene that should have happened at the door, before gloves, and before touching a resident's feeding tube, never did. The infection preventionist described the right way to do things. The inspectors had already seen how it was actually done.
Resident 6 remained on a catheter. Resident 64 continued receiving nutrition through a tube in their stomach.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for North Auburn Care from 2025-04-21 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: October 26, 2026 · Our methodology
North Auburn Care in AUBURN, WA was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 21, 2025.
That admission came from Staff V, a certified nursing assistant at North Auburn Care, during an interview with federal inspectors on April 17, 2025.
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.