Spokane Health & Rehabilitation: Infection Control Failures - WA
Inspectors documented the scene during a survey completed April 24, 2025, at the facility on North Assembly Street. The staff member was not wearing gloves when they blew on the food and asked the resident "is that better?" before placing it into the resident's mouth.
Every employee interviewed afterward said the same thing: that's not how it's supposed to go.
Staff Y, a nursing assistant, told inspectors that hand hygiene meant using alcohol-based hand rub when entering or leaving resident rooms or touching anything soiled. Staff Y said staff should not blow on a resident's food because it could spread germs.
Staff H, a licensed practical nurse, said hand hygiene should happen before and after resident care and before and after dispensing or administering medications. Staff H acknowledged that blowing on a resident's food could spread germs from person to person.
Staff C said the same: hand hygiene before applying gloves, after glove removal, before and after resident care. Staff C acknowledged that blowing on a resident's food could pass germs directly onto what the resident was eating.
Staff D went further, describing when hand hygiene was required in specific terms: before entering a resident's room, after exiting, between providing care to different residents, and between delivering different residents' meal trays. Staff D called the act of blowing on food "an infection control issue."
The administrator, identified in the report as Staff A, acknowledged that staff should not blow on residents' food to cool it down because it was "a potential infection control issue." Staff A said the expectation was that staff change gloves and perform hand hygiene when indicated.
What the inspection report captures, in its flat procedural language, is a gap between what every person at this facility knows and what actually happened in that room. Four staff members and the administrator all understood the problem immediately when asked. None of them were in the room when it happened.
The violation was cited at the level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting some residents. That classification sits at the lower end of the federal deficiency scale. It does not mean the risk was imaginary. Respiratory droplets from a staff member's mouth landing on food that goes directly into a medically vulnerable resident's mouth is exactly the kind of transmission route that infection control protocols exist to interrupt.
Nursing homes house some of the people most susceptible to infection-related complications. Hand hygiene requirements in long-term care settings exist because the consequences of lapses, even small ones, fall hardest on residents who have the least capacity to fight off what gets introduced.
The resident in this case had no say in whether the person feeding them had washed their hands. They could not see whether gloves were worn. They were asked if the food was better after someone breathed on it, and then they were fed.
The facility's plan of correction was not included in the inspection report. For information on how Spokane Health & Rehabilitation intends to address the deficiency, inspectors directed inquiries to the facility or the state survey agency.
What the record shows is a room, a meal tray, a staff member's breath, and a resident who ate what was placed in front of them.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Spokane Health & Rehabilitation from 2025-04-24 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 30, 2026 · Our methodology
SPOKANE HEALTH & REHABILITATION in SPOKANE, WA was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 24, 2025.
Inspectors documented the scene during a survey completed April 24, 2025, at the facility on North Assembly Street.
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.