New Martinsville Health & Rehab: Food Safety Failures - WV
The food safety citation, issued under a federal standard requiring nursing homes to procure, store, prepare, distribute, and serve food according to professional standards, was not an isolated lapse. Inspectors classified it as a pattern, meaning the problem showed up more than once during their review. That distinction matters. A single incident can be explained away as an accident. A pattern suggests something about how the kitchen operates day to day.
The facility serves a population that depends entirely on staff to feed them safely. Residents in nursing homes are, by definition, among the most medically vulnerable people in any community. Many have compromised immune systems, chronic illness, or conditions that make a foodborne illness or a nutritional failure far more dangerous for them than it would be for a healthy adult. When inspectors write that a violation carries "potential for more than minimal harm," that language is doing real work. It means the conditions they found were not trivial.
No resident was documented as harmed during this inspection. That is worth stating plainly. But the absence of documented harm is not the same as safety. Foodborne illness can be difficult to trace back to its source in a congregate care setting, particularly when residents cannot always communicate symptoms clearly or when illness is attributed to other causes.
What inspectors found specific enough to cite under the food procurement and service standard was not detailed in the summary record available. The regulatory tag, F0812, covers a broad range of failures: food sourced from unapproved suppliers, improper storage temperatures, cross-contamination risks, inadequate handling practices, or problems with how meals are distributed and served to residents. Any one of those, or some combination, can put a frail resident at risk.
The facility reported a correction date of September 19, 2025, roughly three weeks after the August 27 inspection. Whether that correction addressed the root conditions that produced a pattern of violations, rather than the surface findings inspectors documented, is not something the record shows.
New Martinsville Health & Rehab was cited for five other deficiencies during the same inspection. The food safety finding was one piece of a broader picture that inspectors assembled during what was, notably, a complaint inspection, meaning someone had raised concerns before investigators ever walked through the door.
Complaint inspections are triggered when a resident, family member, employee, or other person contacts regulators with a specific allegation. The inspection that follows is not a routine survey. Inspectors come in with a purpose. The fact that this visit produced six deficiencies across the facility suggests that whatever concern prompted the complaint, inspectors found additional problems once they began looking.
The dietary kitchen in a nursing home is not a peripheral operation. It is central to care. Residents who cannot leave the building, who rely on staff to bring them every meal, who may have specific dietary needs tied to their medical conditions, are entirely dependent on that kitchen running correctly. A pattern of failures in food procurement and service is a failure in the basic infrastructure of daily life for the people who live there.
The facility has told regulators the problem is fixed. Inspectors will eventually return to verify that claim.
The residents who ate meals at New Martinsville Health & Rehab while those conditions existed did not have that option.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for New Martinsville Health & Rehab 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 2, 2026 · Our methodology
NEW MARTINSVILLE HEALTH & REHAB in NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 27, 2025.
Inspectors classified it as a pattern, meaning the problem showed up more than once during their review.
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.