Skip to main content

Aventura at Creekside: Cockroach Infestation Violations - PA

Healthcare Facility
Aventura At Creekside
Carbondale, PA  ·  1/5 stars

That August 26 inspection came one day after federal regulators had already declared an Immediate Jeopardy situation at the 45 North Scott Street facility, a designation reserved for conditions that place residents at serious risk of harm or death. The finding covered all residents at the facility.

The five weeks between the pest control company's July warning and the facility's emergency corrective action plan in late August represent the central fact of this inspection. The problem was documented. The kitchen kept serving food.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Cockroaches carry and spread salmonella, E. coli, and other pathogens on their legs and bodies as they move across food preparation surfaces, utensils, and stored ingredients. A kitchen with active cockroach activity behind appliances and along walls is a kitchen where every meal served carries contamination risk. The federal inspectors who reviewed this case concluded that the infestation resulted in the contamination of food, utensils, and food-contact surfaces with disease-causing organisms, and that it represented a failure to maintain proper sanitary conditions that placed all residents at risk for foodborne illness.

Nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable people to foodborne illness. Compromised immune systems, multiple chronic conditions, and the medications that come with them leave little margin when bacteria from a contaminated surface reach food that reaches a resident's tray.

The facility's corrective action plan, submitted at 2:45 PM on August 25, laid out a cascade of measures that had not been in place for the preceding five weeks. Kitchen staff would switch immediately to paper supplies and disposable products for all meal service. Staff would be stationed to monitor each meal while the tray line was active, watching specifically for insects or cockroaches. Pest control services were activated for immediate source-area treatment. The kitchen underwent full sanitation, including all equipment and floors, and all exposed food and single-use items were discarded.

The three-compartment sink was designated for use as needed, and staff were directed to complete sanitation treatments in the kitchen after every meal. The Food Service Director or the registered nurse supervisor would monitor the kitchen continuously, day and night. Hourly audits were scheduled for three days, then daily for seven days, then weekly for four weeks.

All of this was the emergency response. None of it was the baseline.

The pest control inspector who came through on the morning of August 26, the day after the corrective action plan was submitted, found the kitchen still had active cockroach activity. The inspector's recommendations included a fogging treatment, installation of a four-foot door sweep on the kitchen exit door, and sealing around the floor pipe opening under the sink. Those gaps, a door without an adequate sweep, a pipe opening unsealed at floor level, are the kind of structural conditions that allow insects to move freely in and out of a food service environment. The fogging treatment was scheduled for August 27 at 7:00 PM.

Dietary staff received education on the facility's pest control and kitchen sanitation policies and protocols. That education happened on or after August 25. The policies existed before that date. The gap between having a policy and following it is where the five weeks lived.

Staff in-service training on food safety and pest prevention was scheduled for completion by August 27. Final environmental repairs, sealing cracks, installing the door sweep, repairing baseboards, were assigned a completion deadline of August 30, two days after the inspection date.

Facility leadership notified all residents, their families, and the medical director about the situation and the steps being taken. Residents were to be assessed for any gastrointestinal symptoms that might be connected to food. An emergency quality assurance meeting was convened to address the issue and develop ongoing preventive measures.

The Immediate Jeopardy designation was lifted on August 28, 2025, at 10:00 AM, after inspectors verified that the facility had implemented a corrective action plan that addressed the immediate risk. Lifting the designation means the acute emergency has been resolved on paper. It does not mean the kitchen had been clean for five weeks. It does not mean residents had not already eaten meals prepared in a kitchen where cockroaches were moving along the walls and behind the appliances.

The inspection report does not identify any resident who became ill. It does not say no one did. It says residents were to be assessed for gastrointestinal symptoms. The assessment was part of the corrective action plan, meaning it was initiated after the emergency was declared, not before.

What the record establishes is a timeline. July 21: a pest control company documents that the kitchen needs heavy treatment. The weeks that follow are not described in the inspection report. August 25: the facility submits an emergency corrective action plan. August 26: a licensed pest control inspector finds cockroaches still active along walls and behind appliances throughout the entire kitchen. August 27: fogging treatment scheduled. August 28: Immediate Jeopardy lifted.

Somewhere in that timeline, residents ate breakfast. They ate lunch. They ate dinner. Trays came out of a kitchen that a pest control company had flagged in July, and those meals were served to people who had no way of knowing what was moving behind the appliances where their food was prepared.

The facility had a pest control policy. It had a kitchen sanitation policy. It had a Food Service Director. It had a maintenance director. The corrective action plan that activated all of those resources simultaneously in late August describes, in its urgency, what the preceding weeks had not been.

Aventura at Creekside serves a population that depends entirely on the facility for every meal. They cannot choose a different kitchen. They cannot read an inspection report and decide to eat somewhere else that week. When the kitchen has a problem, they eat from that kitchen until someone decides the problem is serious enough to fix.

The pest control company decided that on July 21. The facility decided it on August 25.

Full Inspection Report

The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Aventura At Creekside from 2025-08-28 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.

Additional Resources


Editorial Standards

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 1, 2026  ·  Our methodology

Quick Answer

AVENTURA AT CREEKSIDE in CARBONDALE, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 28, 2025.

The finding covered all residents at the facility.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened at AVENTURA AT CREEKSIDE?
The finding covered all residents at the facility.
How serious are these violations?
Violation severity varies from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the inspection report for specific deficiency codes and scope. All violations must be corrected within required timeframes and are subject to follow-up verification inspections.
What should families do?
Families should: (1) Ask facility administration about specific corrective actions taken, (2) Request to see the follow-up inspection report verifying corrections, (3) Check if this represents a pattern by reviewing prior inspection reports, (4) Compare this facility's ratings with other nursing homes in CARBONDALE, PA, (5) Report any new concerns directly to state authorities.
Where can I see the full inspection report?
The complete inspection report is available on Medicare.gov's Care Compare website (www.medicare.gov/care-compare). You can also request a copy directly from AVENTURA AT CREEKSIDE or from the state Department of Health. The report includes specific deficiency codes, facility responses, and correction timelines. This facility's federal provider number is 395984.
Has this facility had violations before?
To check AVENTURA AT CREEKSIDE's history, visit Medicare.gov's Care Compare and review their inspection history, quality ratings, and staffing levels. Look for patterns of repeated violations, especially in critical areas like abuse prevention, medication management, infection control, and resident safety.


Advertisement