Alderwood Post Acute: No Full-Time Nursing Director - WA
There wasn't one.
Staff C, the receptionist, told the investigator that the facility had been without a Director of Nursing as of the previous week. The position, which requires a full-time registered nurse to oversee the care and services delivered to every resident in the building, was vacant. The previous DON, identified in inspection records as Staff B, had been terminated.
The administrator, Staff A, confirmed it that same afternoon. The facility had no designated full-time RN serving as Director of Nursing. A corporate nurse was covering the role as needed until someone could be hired, Staff A said, but that person was not on-site full time.
A review of the facility's own key personnel documentation, pulled two days later on August 27, showed the same thing in writing: no full-time DON listed.
The inspection had been triggered by a complaint. Investigators returned on September 3, the formal close of the inspection window. Staff A confirmed the situation had not changed. A candidate had been interviewed and an offer extended, the administrator said, but the corporate nurse was still the only coverage, and that coverage remained part-time.
The violation was cited under Washington state regulation WAC 388-97-1080(2)(a) and classified at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with many residents affected.
That classification, minimal harm, describes the regulatory threshold for the citation itself. It does not describe what a nursing home without a full-time Director of Nursing actually looks like on the ground over days and then weeks. The DON is not a figurehead. The position sits at the center of how a facility monitors residents for changes in condition, how it supervises nursing staff, how it catches the kind of problems that compound quietly before anyone notices. When that position goes unfilled, or gets covered intermittently by someone working across multiple facilities, the daily oversight it provides does not simply pause and wait.
The facility's own records showed the gap had opened at least by the week before August 25. By the time investigators wrapped the inspection on September 3, more than a week had passed with no permanent hire. The offer extended to a candidate had not yet produced anyone in the chair.
Alderwood Post Acute & Rehabilitation is a post-acute and rehabilitation facility, meaning a significant portion of its residents are there precisely because they need close nursing attention. They arrive after hospitalizations, after surgeries, after strokes and falls and cardiac events, and they arrive with care plans that depend on consistent, coordinated nursing supervision.
Staff A did not dispute any of the facts. The administrator acknowledged the vacancy in the first interview, acknowledged it again in the follow-up nine days later, and described the corporate nurse arrangement in both conversations. There was no claim that the coverage was equivalent to having a full-time DON on site. There was no timeline offered for when the new hire would actually begin.
The corporate nurse was still covering. Part-time.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Alderwood Post Acute & Rehabilitation from 2025-09-03 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 26, 2026 · Our methodology
Alderwood Post Acute & Rehabilitation in LYNNWOOD, WA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 3, 2025.
Staff C, the receptionist, told the investigator that the facility had been without a Director of Nursing as of the previous week.
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.