Rehab Centers of Independence West: Call Light Failures - IA
That was not the worst week she'd had. It was just the most documented.
A federal inspection at Rehabilitation Centers of Independence West Campus, completed August 12, 2025, found that a single resident had her call light ignored or significantly delayed at least thirteen times over seven days. Inspectors pulled the facility's own computerized call light logs and went through them line by line with a staff member identified as a Quality Assurance Certified Medication Aide. What those logs showed was a pattern that repeated itself morning, afternoon, and evening, across multiple days, without interruption.
The resident told inspectors herself what had happened the night before they arrived. She had turned on her call light at 6:00 pm. Staff did not answer until 6:50 pm. Fifty minutes.
The logs confirmed what she described, and then added to it.
On August 5th, she activated her call light at 10:16 in the morning. Staff took 28 minutes and 48 seconds to respond. The following morning, August 6th, she pressed it at 8:44 am and waited 31 minutes and 34 seconds. That same evening she pressed it again at 6:21 pm. Twenty minutes and 24 seconds.
August 7th brought two more. At 5:09 in the morning, she pressed the light and waited 25 minutes and 25 seconds. At noon she pressed it again. That one took 40 minutes and 10 seconds.
August 9th, two more. Thirty-three minutes in the early morning. Nineteen minutes in the early afternoon.
August 10th, two more. Nineteen minutes at 6:16 in the morning. Twenty-three minutes at 6:18 in the evening.
Then August 11th, the day before inspectors arrived. She pressed her call light four times. At 8:03 am, staff took 22 minutes and 9 seconds. At 12:36 pm, 22 minutes and 4 seconds. At 1:55 pm, 17 minutes and 2 seconds. And then the 6:10 pm call, the one that went 42 minutes and 14 seconds before anyone answered.
Thirteen incidents. Seven days. The shortest wait was just over seventeen minutes. The longest, counting what she told inspectors directly, was fifty minutes.
The inspection classified the harm level as minimal or potential for actual harm, and noted that few residents were affected. The finding was tied to a complaint, meaning someone had reported a concern before inspectors walked through the door.
What the logs do not show is what the resident needed each time she pressed that light. Call light systems record activation and response. They do not record whether someone was in pain, or needed to use the bathroom, or had fallen, or simply could not reach something across the room. They record only how long she waited.
She waited a total of more than five hours across those thirteen calls, by the logs alone, before staff acknowledged she had asked for help.
The facility's own system captured all of it. The timestamps were there. The Quality Assurance staff member reviewed them alongside the inspector on the morning of August 12th, the same morning the resident sat down and described the previous night's fifty-minute wait from memory, not knowing the logs would confirm exactly what she said.
She had been pressing that light since at least August 5th. The logs started there. Whether she had been waiting longer than that, the inspection report does not say.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Rehabilitation Centers of Independence West Campus from 2025-08-12 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Download the official CMS inspection PDF from Medicare.gov
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: November 3, 2026 · Our methodology
Rehabilitation Centers of Independence West Campus in Independence, IA was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 12, 2025.
That was not the worst week she'd had.
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.