Sterling Care Bel Air: Unlocked Med Carts, Insulin Left Out - MD
That was at 12:14 p.m. on the day of the August inspection at Sterling Care Bel Air. The surveyor had already found one unlocked, unattended cart six minutes earlier — a treatment cart parked in front of the nurse's station with prescription creams, ointments, and a patient's sterile water sitting inside, undated and accessible to anyone who walked by.
When the surveyor opened the top drawer of the medication cart, the one the resident had just been standing at, they found insulin pens, syringes, and a cell phone.
The resident, identified in inspection records only as Resident 21, walked away down the hallway as the surveyor approached. The surveyor spent several minutes going through the cart. Nobody came.
Inside were insulin pens belonging to at least four residents. Resident 23 had an opened insulin vial with no date written on it, along with two opened insulin pens, neither dated. One of those pens had been dispensed on June 27. Resident 22's Lyumjev Kwick Pen was opened and undated. Resident 21's insulin pen was opened and undated. Insulin, once opened, is only good for 28 days according to the manufacturer's directions. None of the pens had dates that would allow anyone to know whether that window had passed.
There were also unopened insulin pens stored in a plastic bag that was labeled to refrigerate until opened. They were not refrigerated. They were in the unlocked cart, in the hallway.
After roughly two minutes of the surveyor going through the drawer, Licensed Practical Nurse 4 walked up. She said the cart belonged to LPN 5. The surveyor told her the cart had been left unlocked and unattended with a resident standing at it. LPN 4 was shown the undated insulin pens.
Eleven minutes after the surveyor first found the cart, LPN 5 arrived. She said she didn't realize she had left it unlocked. When the surveyor showed her the insulin pens, she said she had just come on duty that morning and they were already there when she arrived. The surveyor asked why she hadn't refrigerated them after taking possession of the cart. LPN 5 didn't have an answer.
Back at the treatment cart near the nurse's station, the surveyor had found a 500-milliliter bottle of sterile irrigation water belonging to Resident 24. There was 100 milliliters left in the bottle. There was no date on it indicating when it had been opened. Sterile water is only good for 24 hours once opened.
At 12:14, six minutes after finding the first cart, the surveyor had still not been noticed by any staff member. That's when they walked around the corner and found the second one.
The Director of Nursing was informed of the findings the following morning at 8:30 a.m. She said she was already aware and had begun in-servicing staff.
The facility's own storage policy, which the Director of Nursing provided to the surveyor, stated plainly that carts and drawers containing drugs must be locked when not in use and must not be left unattended if open. The same policy required that medications needing refrigeration be stored in a refrigerator at the nurses' station or another secured location.
The inspection was a complaint survey. Inspectors cited the facility for failing to keep medication and treatment carts locked when unattended, failing to date medications when opened, failing to discard medications that could not be confirmed as within their use window, and failing to refrigerate insulin that required it. The violations were found on one of the two nursing units observed.
The resident who had been standing at the open cart, insulin pens and syringes within reach, was gone by the time anyone from the facility noticed the surveyor was there.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Sterling Care Bel Air 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.
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Last verified: October 11, 2026 · Our methodology
STERLING CARE BEL AIR in BEL AIR, MD was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 21, 2025.
on the day of the August inspection at Sterling Care Bel Air.
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.