Kiowa Hills Rehab: Food Safety Failure Found - CO
Inspectors visited the facility at 924 W. Kiowa Street on August 27, 2025, following a complaint. What they found in the kitchen was straightforward: potato salad being served at temperatures above the safe threshold for cold food. The dietary manager told inspectors cold food should be held at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or below, and that his personal goal was to keep it at 36 degrees. The potato salad was not anywhere close.
He explained why. He didn't have enough smaller containers to divide the potato salad into portions that would cool properly. He didn't have enough pans to place ice underneath to keep the temperature down. The satellite kitchen where the food was being held had no dedicated cooling spot for cold items. He had already placed a supply order with the nursing home administrator. The supplies had not arrived.
The administrator, identified in the report as the NHA, confirmed the account when inspectors interviewed him that afternoon. He said the dietary manager had given him invoices for things that needed to be ordered. He said he would talk with the dietary manager to figure out what was needed.
That exchange, documented in federal inspection records, captures the specific failure inspectors cited: a nursing home serving cold food at unsafe temperatures, not because staff didn't know better, but because the facility hadn't provided the equipment to do it right.
Cold food held above 41 degrees creates conditions where bacteria multiply. Potato salad, made with eggs and mayonnaise, is among the foods most commonly linked to foodborne illness outbreaks in institutional settings. The dietary manager said the potato salad had been cooling in the refrigerator for over four hours before service and said he didn't understand why the temperature was still high. The answer, by his own account, was that it had been stored in containers too large to cool efficiently, with no ice underneath and no proper cold-holding space available.
The deficiency was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, meaning inspectors determined residents were exposed to risk even if no illness was documented during the inspection. The report notes that some residents were affected.
The dietary manager's candor with inspectors was notable. He didn't dispute the temperatures. He didn't claim the thermometer was wrong or that the food had just come out of the refrigerator moments before it was checked. He walked through the problem methodically: wrong container size, no ice pans, no cooling spot, supplies on order. He said the potato salad should not have been filled as high as it was. He said it should have been handled differently. He knew the standard. The facility hadn't given him what he needed to meet it.
The administrator's response, that he would speak with the dietary manager about what to order, was the same conversation that had apparently already happened, resulting in invoices that had not yet been acted on by the time inspectors arrived.
Kiowa Hills Rehabilitation and Nursing is a licensed skilled nursing facility operating in downtown Colorado Springs. The August 27 inspection was a complaint survey. The specific complaint that triggered the visit was not described in the portion of the report made available.
What the report does describe is a dietary manager standing in a satellite kitchen without enough containers, without enough ice pans, without a cold-holding space, trying to serve cold food safely to nursing home residents, and failing, not for lack of knowledge, but for lack of supplies that he had already asked for and not received.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Kiowa Hills Rehabilitation and Nursing, LLC from 2025-08-27 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: July 6, 2026 · Our methodology
KIOWA HILLS REHABILITATION AND NURSING, LLC in COLORADO SPRINGS, CO was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 27, 2025.
Inspectors visited the facility at 924 W.
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.