Hammonds Lane Center: Record-Keeping Failures Found - MD
The green and white pack and the blue lighter were visible in plain sight when inspectors entered the room of Resident 97 at around 8:10 in the morning. When they checked the facility's official list of residents who smoke, his name wasn't on it.
Nearly five hours later, at 1:00 in the afternoon, the Director of Nursing brought inspectors an updated version of the list. Resident 97's name had been added. The Director of Nursing acknowledged what the morning had already made obvious: "Resident 97 should have been on the list of facility smokers because Resident 97 smokes."
That was the correction. A name typed onto a list, same day, after inspectors had already found the gap.
The smoker registry problem was not the only records failure inspectors documented. A separate review of Resident 5's medical chart found that staff had recorded whether or not a medication produced side effects, but had not followed through with the required next step. When staff documented that there were no side effects, they were supposed to complete a progress note explaining that finding. The notes weren't there.
The Director of Nursing described the situation plainly during the inspection: "There were no progress notes completed for staff members who documented no," adding that "staff should have completed a progress note and or the staff are documenting incorrectly."
That last phrase carries weight. Either the staff knew what was required and skipped it, or they didn't know what was required at all. The Director of Nursing did not specify which. The inspection report does not resolve it.
Federal inspectors classified both findings under F0842, the regulation governing medical record accuracy and completeness. The level of harm was listed as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and the violations were noted as affecting some residents.
What the inspection captured, in both cases, was the same basic problem: records that did not reflect what was actually happening with residents in the building. One resident's smoking habit was undocumented for long enough that it took an inspector walking into the room and seeing the cigarettes firsthand to surface it. Another resident's medication responses were logged incompletely, leaving gaps in the clinical picture that a chart is supposed to provide.
Medical records in a nursing home are not administrative paperwork. They are the mechanism by which one nurse knows what the last nurse observed, by which a physician tracks whether a medication is working or causing harm, by which a family trying to understand a loved one's condition has something to point to. When those records are incomplete or wrong, the people depending on them are working without the full picture.
At Hammonds Lane Center in August 2025, inspectors found both kinds of failure in the same visit. A registry that missed a resident who was openly, visibly a smoker. A medication log that recorded an outcome without the documentation to support it. The Director of Nursing confirmed both problems during the inspection itself.
Resident 97 was added to the smoker list before the day was out. Whether the progress note deficiencies in Resident 5's chart were addressed the same way, the inspection report does not say.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Hammonds Lane Center from 2025-08-25 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 5, 2026 · Our methodology
HAMMONDS LANE CENTER in BROOKLYN PARK, MD was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 25, 2025.
The green and white pack and the blue lighter were visible in plain sight when inspectors entered the room of Resident 97 at around 8:10 in the morning.
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.