Edgewater Health and Rehabilitation: Sanitation Failure - CO
It was not correct.
A federal inspection completed August 27, 2025 found that staff at Edgewater had been cleaning thermometers in a way that left the probe in contact with the outer packaging of the alcohol wipe rather than the wipe itself. The packaging, not sterile, touched the instrument being used on residents. The violation was cited under F0812, which covers sanitation and infection control in food and nutrition services, and inspectors determined it affected many residents.
The cook, identified in the inspection report as the CK, was interviewed the day before. He said the same thing the dietary manager would say the following morning: he had been taught to poke the thermometer through the alcohol wipe packaging. He did not describe it as improvisation. He described it as training.
The correct method, according to inspectors, requires opening the alcohol wipe diagonally, inserting the thermometer probe into that opening, and cleaning the probe so that the wipe's surface, not its wrapper, makes contact with the instrument.
Nobody at the facility appeared to know that. The dietary manager, the cook, and by extension the residents whose temperatures were taken with instruments cleaned this way, were all operating under the same mistaken instruction.
The dietary manager was not a line employee demonstrating a personal shortcut. She was interviewed alongside the nursing home administrator, and she was the one who showed inspectors how cleaning was done. What she demonstrated was not a lapse. It was institutional.
The violation was rated at the level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm. That language, standard in federal inspection reports, reflects what inspectors could document, not necessarily what occurred over time. A thermometer probe cleaned against sealed plastic packaging rather than an alcohol wipe is a thermometer probe that has not been properly disinfected. How many temperatures were taken that way, and for how long, the inspection report does not say.
What it does say is that the practice was taught, repeated, and demonstrated without hesitation by the person responsible for overseeing it.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Edgewater Health and Rehabilitation from 2025-08-27 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 3, 2026 · Our methodology
Edgewater Health and Rehabilitation in LAKEWOOD, CO was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 27, 2025.
The packaging, not sterile, touched the instrument being used on residents.
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.