North Auburn Care: Mental Health Screening Failures - WA
The admissions came during an April 2025 inspection of the Auburn facility, where inspectors reviewed records for residents with serious mental illness diagnoses and found the paperwork trail had gone cold in both cases.
The screening process at issue, called a PASRR, is a two-stage evaluation required before and after a person with a mental illness or intellectual disability is admitted to a nursing home. A Level I screens for potential concerns. A Level II goes deeper, and is triggered when a Level I flags serious mental illness. The state coordinates the Level II evaluations. The facility is responsible for making sure the referrals happen and for following up.
Staff G, the employee responsible for tracking these evaluations, told inspectors she was expected to follow up on referrals within three weeks. She did not do that for either resident.
The first resident, identified in inspection records as Resident 24, had a referral made but never received a Level II evaluation. Staff G told inspectors she knew a referral had gone out. She did not follow up on it. When inspectors raised questions during the survey and the facility contacted the state PASRR coordinator, the coordinator confirmed the state had never received a Level II referral for Resident 24.
Staff G's explanation: she was running behind.
The second case was more layered. Resident 35 was admitted in late June 2024 with diagnoses of depression and anxiety disorder. The initial Level I screening, completed before admission, documented no serious mental illnesses and found no Level II evaluation necessary. That should have been reviewed after the resident arrived at the facility. It was not.
Six months passed.
In December 2024, Staff G completed an updated Level I that corrected the record, this time documenting the serious mental illnesses and flagging that a Level II referral was required. That referral was made. But when inspectors contacted the state coordinator during the April 2025 survey, the coordinator said the state had never received it.
Staff G told inspectors she had not followed up on Resident 35's referral, either. She was running behind.
The gap between Resident 35's admission and the corrected screening spans roughly six months, from late June to mid-December 2024. During that time, the resident's record reflected no serious mental illness and no need for further evaluation, which was wrong. Whether that gap affected the care Resident 35 received at the facility, the inspection report does not say.
CMS rated the harm level for both violations as minimal harm or potential for actual harm. No immediate jeopardy was cited. The deficiencies were cited under Washington state administrative code.
What the inspection documents is narrower than that framing suggests. Two residents with serious mental illness diagnoses went without evaluations the state was waiting to conduct. The staff member responsible acknowledged she knew the follow-up was her job, knew the timeline, and did not meet it. The state coordinator confirmed, in both cases, that the referrals never arrived.
The facility is located at 2830 I Street Northeast in Auburn. The inspection was completed April 21, 2025.
Resident 35's corrected screening sat in the facility's system for four months before inspectors arrived and asked about it. The state still had not received the referral.
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.
Corrections: We strive for accuracy in everything we publish. If you believe any fact in this article is incorrect, please contact us with details, and we will review and correct it promptly.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: October 29, 2026 · Our methodology
North Auburn Care in AUBURN, WA was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 21, 2025.
A Level I screens for potential concerns.
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.