Good Samaritan Society Park River: Accident Hazards - ND
The citation fell under a category federal regulators use specifically for quality of life and care failures, the kind of finding that points not to a paperwork problem but to conditions on the floor where residents spend their days.
Inspectors rated the violation at scope and severity level D, which in the federal grading system means the problem was isolated rather than widespread, and that no resident suffered documented actual harm. But level D does not mean nothing was wrong. It means inspectors concluded the hazard carried potential for more than minimal harm, the threshold at which the federal government requires a facility to act.
The distinction matters. Nursing home residents are, by definition, a population that cannot always remove themselves from danger. Many have mobility limitations, cognitive impairment, or both. An accident hazard that a younger, healthier person might sidestep without thinking can mean a fall, a fracture, or worse for someone who is 80 years old and unsteady on their feet. The regulatory system's logic is that you do not wait for someone to get hurt before calling a hazard a hazard.
Good Samaritan Society Park River is operated by the Good Samaritan Society, a large nonprofit that runs senior care facilities across multiple states. The Park River location sits in Walsh County in northeastern North Dakota, a rural community where the nearest alternative care options for families can be miles away. That geography is not unusual in the upper Midwest, and it shapes what a citation like this one means in practice: for many residents and their families, this facility is not one option among several. It is the option.
The inspection report does not describe in detail what specific hazard inspectors found or what supervision gap they documented. The narrative provided to regulators identifies the deficiency category and confirms the citation was issued, but the granular findings, what inspectors observed in which room, what staff did or did not do, what the hazard actually was, are not captured in the summary record available here.
What the record does show is that the facility was cited for the same category of failure that shows up in some of the most serious nursing home injury cases in the country: the failure to anticipate and eliminate conditions that put residents at risk. Falls. Unsecured equipment. Accessible areas that residents with dementia should not be able to reach. Hot surfaces. The deficiency tag covering accident hazards and supervision is one of the most commonly cited in American nursing homes precisely because the category is broad, and because the environments where frail elderly people live are full of things that can go wrong.
Four other deficiencies were cited during the same August 21 inspection. The report does not detail what those findings involved, but five deficiencies in a single inspection is not a clean record. It suggests inspectors found a pattern of concerns across multiple areas of the facility's operations, not a single isolated lapse.
The facility reported that it corrected the accident hazard deficiency as of September 25, 2025, slightly more than a month after the inspection. Federal rules require facilities to submit a plan of correction and a target date, and the September 25 date represents the facility's own stated timeline. Whether the correction was verified by inspectors or accepted based on the facility's self-report is not reflected in the available record.
Correction dates in nursing home enforcement have a complicated history. Facilities report them. Regulators often accept them without an immediate follow-up visit. The same deficiency can reappear in a subsequent inspection at the same facility, sometimes within months. The correction date on paper and the conditions on the ground are not always the same thing.
For the residents living at Good Samaritan Society Park River during the weeks between the August inspection and the September correction date, the hazard that prompted the citation remained unresolved. The inspection report does not say whether any resident was moved, whether additional staff were assigned to supervision, or whether any interim steps were taken while the facility worked toward its correction deadline.
The federal rating system gives families a way to track deficiencies over time, but it requires knowing where to look and how to read what you find. A level D citation with no documented harm can be easy to overlook in a summary report. The five words at the center of this one, free from accident hazards, adequate supervision, describe something more fundamental than a compliance checkbox. They describe whether the people who live in a nursing home are safe while they are there.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Good Samaritan Society - Park River from 2025-08-21 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.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: October 10, 2026 · Our methodology
GOOD SAMARITAN SOCIETY - PARK RIVER in PARK RIVER, ND was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 21, 2025.
But level D does not mean nothing was wrong.
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.