Massena Rehabilitation & Nursing: Menu Failures - NY
Federal health inspectors cited Massena Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in August for failing to ensure that resident menus met nutritional needs, were prepared in advance, followed consistently, kept current, and reviewed by a dietician. The violation was one of 15 deficiencies inspectors documented during a complaint inspection on August 15.
Inspectors classified the dietary deficiency at scope and severity level D, meaning the lapse was isolated and caused no documented harm. But they noted the potential for more than minimal harm was there.
For nursing home residents, that distinction matters less than it might seem. People living in long-term care facilities often cannot advocate for themselves at mealtime. They may have diabetes, kidney disease, swallowing disorders, or conditions that make what they eat as consequential as what medications they take. A menu that exists on paper but isn't followed, or that no registered dietician has reviewed, is not a minor administrative gap. It is a breakdown in one of the most basic functions a nursing facility is supposed to perform.
The facility reported the dietary violation corrected as of October 10, nearly two months after inspectors found it.
Massena Rehabilitation and Nursing Center is a 120-bed skilled nursing facility in Massena, a small city in St. Lawrence County near the Canadian border. The August inspection was triggered by a complaint, not a routine survey cycle, which means someone, whether a resident, family member, or staff, raised a concern serious enough to bring inspectors through the door.
What inspectors found when they arrived was not a single problem. It was 15 of them.
The dietary citation was tagged under F0803, a federal regulatory category that covers the full scope of menu planning in nursing facilities. The requirement is specific: menus must be written in advance, actually followed in the kitchen, updated when needed, and signed off by a qualified dietician who has reviewed them against each resident's individual nutritional needs. The citation indicates that one or more of those requirements was not being met.
The facility did not contest the finding. It set a correction date and moved on.
Whether the correction addressed the underlying conditions that produced 15 deficiencies in a single complaint inspection is a question the report does not answer. Correction dates are self-reported. Inspectors verify compliance on follow-up visits, but those results are separate from this record.
Fifteen deficiencies in one inspection is a number worth sitting with. Complaint inspections are not comprehensive surveys. They are targeted. Inspectors arrive with a specific concern in mind, and what they find along the way, other problems visible to a trained eye, gets cited alongside whatever prompted the visit. To accumulate 15 citations under those conditions suggests a facility where problems were not confined to one department or one shift.
The dietary finding alone describes a system failure, not a one-time mistake. Menus that aren't followed, aren't reviewed, aren't updated, don't arrive in advance: each of those failures requires someone to have not done something, repeatedly, over time.
Residents at Massena Rehabilitation and Nursing Center depend on the facility for every meal. For some of them, what they eat is medically managed. For others, a hot meal that matches what was promised might be one of the few things in a given day that goes according to plan. When the kitchen operates without a current, dietician-approved menu, the people most affected are the ones least able to do anything about it.
The facility says it fixed the problem by October 10. The inspection record does not say what residents ate in the weeks between August 15 and then.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Massena Rehabilitation & Nursing Center from 2025-08-15 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 20, 2026 · Our methodology
MASSENA REHABILITATION & NURSING CENTER in MASSENA, NY was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 15, 2025.
The violation was one of 15 deficiencies inspectors documented during a complaint inspection on August 15.
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.