Franklin Plaza Extended Care: Kitchen Mold, Unlabeled Food - OH
The tour lasted 32 minutes. By the time it was over, the dietary manager had confirmed mold in the ice bin, a brown crusty substance coating the outside of dozens of food containers, and more than 50 individual food items sitting in the walk-in cooler with no dates on them — no way to know how long they had been there or when they needed to come out.
The facility serves 163 residents. All but four of them eat food that comes out of that kitchen.
Inspectors documented what they found in the walk-in cooler item by item: four cups of milk, 12 bowls of chocolate pudding, nine cups of prune juice, 28 bowls of Jell-O. Two chocolate pies were still in their original packaging, but the seals on both had been broken. None of it was dated.
The facility's own food storage policy says foods will be kept "free of harmful organisms and substances" and that items with compromised seals "will not be served." The two pies with broken seals were sitting in the cooler anyway.
On the outside of nine cups and 12 bowls, also inside the cooler, inspectors found a brown, crusty substance. The dietary manager confirmed it during the tour.
The oven was worse in a different way. A large amount of greasy food residue had built up on the left outside wall. When inspectors asked Dietary Manager No. 713 when it had last been cleaned, she had no answer.
The ice bin had a black spotted substance on its right inside wall. The dietary manager said it appeared to be mold.
She confirmed every finding on the spot.
Inspectors were there because of a complaint — Complaint No. 2560412 — not a routine visit. Someone had flagged conditions at the facility before the August 25 tour even began. What inspectors found that morning validated the concern.
The deficiency was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, a designation that reflects risk rather than a documented injury. That framing is worth reading carefully. It means no resident has been tied, in this report, to a foodborne illness or an adverse event from what was found in that kitchen. It does not mean the conditions were minor.
Mold in an ice bin used to serve food and drinks to nursing home residents is not a borderline finding. Neither is a walk-in cooler full of undated dairy, pudding, and dessert items in a facility where many residents have compromised immune systems, swallowing difficulties, or conditions that make foodborne illness harder to survive. The absence of dates means staff had no way to pull items before they spoiled. The broken seals on the pies meant the contents had been exposed.
The dietary manager who walked through the kitchen with inspectors confirmed all of it. She didn't dispute the mold, the crust on the bowls, the undated cups, or the oven she couldn't account for. The findings were hers to confirm because she was the one responsible for the kitchen.
Franklin Plaza Extended Care sits on Franklin Boulevard in Cleveland's near west side. It had 163 residents at the time of the inspection. The four residents exempted from the deficiency's scope — Residents No. 3, No. 158, No. 99, and No. 153 — received nothing by mouth and did not eat from the kitchen. Everyone else did.
The inspection report was completed September 2, 2025, and printed the following April. The facility's plan to correct the deficiency is available through the nursing home or the Ohio state survey agency, according to the form. What the kitchen looks like now is a different question.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Franklin Plaza Extended Care from 2025-09-02 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: August 5, 2026 · Our methodology
FRANKLIN PLAZA EXTENDED CARE in CLEVELAND, OH was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 2, 2025.
The facility serves 163 residents.
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.