Mennonite Friendship Communities: Discharge Rights Failure - KS
The inspection, completed August 26, 2025, at Mennonite Friendship Communities Inc on West Blanchard Avenue found that the facility failed to include a statement of appeal rights in the discharge notice sent to the resident's representative. The letter also omitted the name, address, and telephone number of the entity that receives appeal requests, the specific location where the resident would be sent, and contact information for required state agencies. None of those omissions were disputed.
The resident, identified only as Resident 1 in the inspection report, carried a list of serious diagnoses: respiratory failure with hypoxia, hypothyroidism, and generalized weakness requiring assistance with personal care. The facility's own records documented a planned discharge to another long-term care facility on June 27, 2025.
The letter that went to the resident's representative was dated May 22, 2025, more than a month before the actual discharge. It informed her that the resident would be discharged for non-payment of services, that she would need to find alternative living arrangements before July 21, 2025, and that facility staff would help. It included contact information for the long-term care ombudsman and a list of nearby nursing homes with phone numbers.
What it did not include was where, specifically, the resident was going. It did not tell the representative she had the right to appeal the discharge decision. It did not explain how to file that appeal, who to contact, or where to send it.
Administrative Nurse D confirmed during an interview the morning of the inspection that the resident had been discharged for nonpayment and provided documentation showing the resident had been denied Medicaid due to failure to submit required paperwork. Administrative Staff A, who signed the letter, was not available for interview that day.
Inspectors also found that the reason for the discharge was never entered into the resident's medical record, as the facility's own policy required. The Admission, Transfer, and Discharge Policy, updated in November 2024, stated that when the facility mandated a transfer or discharge, the reasons would be documented in the clinical record. They were not. The physician order to discharge the resident, signed June 25, 2025, appeared only as a scanned document in a separate section of the electronic health record, not as a formal physician order in the orders section where it belonged.
The facility's Resident Rights policy, dated January 30, 2012, did not address the discharge process at all.
The inspection classified the violation as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and noted that few residents were affected. But the category of harm doesn't capture what the omissions meant in practice. A representative receiving that letter had no way to know she could challenge the decision. She had no address to send an appeal to. She had no phone number for a state agency that might intervene. She had a list of nursing homes and a deadline.
Inspectors noted the facility's discharge policy also failed to address the requirement to provide a written discharge summary, a recapitulation of the resident's stay, or medication reconciliation to the resident or representative at the time of discharge. For a resident on oxygen management for respiratory failure, that last item is not a paperwork formality.
The resident was discharged on June 27, 2025. The inspection was conducted nearly two months later, on August 26, 2025. By then, Resident 1 had already been gone for weeks.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Mennonite Friendship Communities Inc from 2025-08-26 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 4, 2026 · Our methodology
MENNONITE FRIENDSHIP COMMUNITIES INC in SOUTH HUTCHINSON, KS was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 26, 2025.
None of those omissions were disputed.
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.