Putnam County Care Center: Privacy Violation - MO
She hadn't. The resident had not coded. But the administrator had just handed private medical information to someone who had no legal right to receive it.
Federal inspectors cited Putnam County Care Center, a nursing facility at 1814 Oak Street in Unionville, Missouri, following a complaint investigation completed August 28, 2025. The single deficiency involved the administrator disclosing a resident's code status to a family member who was not the resident's power of attorney.
The inspection report describes the sequence plainly: a family member contacted the facility and asked whether she should come see the resident. The administrator, in answering that question, told the family member the resident's code status had changed to DNR, which stands for do not resuscitate. The family member misunderstood. She believed the resident had already coded, meaning the resident's heart or breathing had stopped and staff had responded, or declined to respond, under the new directive.
That is not what had happened. But the family member had no way to know that, because the person responsible for running the facility had just given her fragmentary medical information she was never supposed to receive.
The inspector's finding was direct: the administrator should not have disclosed any resident's personal medical information to anyone other than the resident or the resident's power of attorney. The administrator violated the resident's privacy and the facility's own privacy policy.
The harm was classified as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting few residents. That classification reflects the regulatory framework inspectors use, not a judgment about what the family member experienced in the moments after that phone call when she believed someone she loved had died, or was dying, or had been left to die, and she was only hearing about it now, secondhand, from the person who ran the place.
Code status is among the most charged information in a medical record. A DNR order means that if the resident's heart stops or they stop breathing, staff will not attempt resuscitation. Families argue over these decisions. They reflect conversations, sometimes difficult ones, between a resident, their designated decision-maker, and their medical team. They are not casual disclosures. They are not answers to the question of whether someone should come for a visit.
The power of attorney designation exists precisely because residents, or their families in advance, have decided who should receive that information and make decisions based on it. The administrator bypassed that entirely.
Putnam County Care Center has not responded publicly to the findings. For information on the facility's plan to correct the deficiency, CMS directs the public to contact the nursing home or the Missouri state survey agency directly.
The inspection report does not say whether the family member was told immediately that she had misunderstood, or how long she believed the resident had coded before someone clarified what the administrator had actually meant to say.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Putnam County 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
PUTNAM COUNTY CARE CENTER in UNIONVILLE, MO was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 28, 2025.
But the administrator had just handed private medical information to someone who had no legal right to receive it.
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.