Elkins Rehabilitation & Care Center: Infection Control Cited - WV
Federal health inspectors visited the facility on August 28, 2025, responding to a complaint, and left with four deficiency citations. One of them targeted the facility's infection prevention and control program — specifically, the gap between having such a program and actually running it.
The citation fell under scope and severity level D, the regulatory shorthand for a violation that affected a limited number of residents and did not produce documented harm. But level D does not mean inconsequential. It means inspectors concluded there was potential for more than minimal harm. In a nursing home, where residents are often elderly, medically fragile, and living in close quarters, that potential carries weight.
Infection control failures are among the most consequential deficiencies a nursing home can receive, even when they look routine on a citation sheet. The residents most likely to be harmed by lapses in infection prevention are exactly the people who live in facilities like this one: people with compromised immune systems, open wounds, catheters, feeding tubes, or chronic illness. An infection that a healthier person shakes off in a week can send a nursing home resident to the hospital, or worse.
The inspection report does not describe what inspectors observed. It does not name a resident who was put at risk, identify which part of the infection control program had broken down, or explain what staff were doing or failing to do when inspectors walked through the building. The record shows only that the program was not being provided and implemented as required, and that the facility was cited for it.
That gap in detail is not unusual. Complaint inspections frequently produce citations with limited public narrative, particularly at lower severity levels. What the record does confirm is that someone filed a complaint about this facility, that inspectors came, and that they found enough to write up four deficiencies, including this one.
Elkins Rehabilitation & Care Center reported a correction date of September 30, 2025, a month after the inspection. Whether that correction involved retraining staff, revising procedures, increasing oversight, or something else, the report does not say.
Infection control has been a sustained pressure point for nursing homes nationally since the pandemic exposed how quickly respiratory and other infections move through congregate care settings. Facilities are required to designate an infection preventionist, maintain surveillance for infections, and train staff on prevention practices. When inspectors find a facility deficient under the infection control standard, it generally means something in that chain broke down — training wasn't happening, hand hygiene wasn't being enforced, isolation procedures weren't followed, or the program existed in a binder somewhere and not in daily practice.
The citation here does not tell us which piece failed. It tells us one did.
Three other deficiencies were cited during the same inspection. The report provided here does not detail those findings, but their presence means this was not a visit where inspectors found one small problem and moved on. Four citations from a single complaint inspection suggests inspectors had reason to look carefully once they were inside, and found multiple areas that fell short.
Elkins is a small city in Randolph County, in the mountains of north-central West Virginia. Elkins Rehabilitation & Care Center serves residents who may have few alternatives for skilled nursing care in the region. That context does not excuse deficiencies, but it shapes what a citation means for the people who live there. Residents and families in rural communities often have limited ability to choose a different facility if care falls short. They stay, and they absorb whatever risk the deficiency represents.
The resident whose complaint prompted this inspection — if a resident filed it, if it was a family member or a staff member or someone else — is not identified in the public record. Neither is what they saw or experienced that led them to make the call.
What the record shows is that they made it, that inspectors came, and that the facility's infection control program was not where it needed to be.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Elkins Rehabilitation & Care Center from 2025-08-28 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: September 30, 2026 · Our methodology
ELKINS REHABILITATION & CARE CENTER in ELKINS, WV was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 28, 2025.
Federal health inspectors visited the facility on August 28, 2025, responding to a complaint, and left with four deficiency citations.
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.