Good Samaritan Society Sioux Falls: Infection Control Failure - SD
The infection control citation, issued under a category reserved for deficiencies with potential for more than minimal harm, was not a one-time lapse. Inspectors classified it as a pattern, meaning the breakdown was not isolated to a single incident or a single resident encounter. Something was going wrong repeatedly, and the people most exposed to the consequences were the residents living there.
The inspection was a complaint survey, meaning someone, a resident, a family member, a staff member, had raised concerns serious enough to bring federal inspectors through the door. The September 5 visit produced nine total deficiencies across the facility.
Infection control failures in nursing homes carry a particular weight. Residents in long-term care are among the most vulnerable to infectious disease. Many are elderly, immunocompromised, or managing multiple chronic conditions. A lapse that might cause a healthy adult only minor discomfort can send a nursing home resident to the hospital, or worse.
The citation issued to Good Samaritan Society Sioux Falls Center falls under regulatory tag F0880, which covers the requirement that a facility not only have an infection prevention and control program but actually implement it. The distinction matters. A binder of policies sitting in an administrator's office is not a program. Inspectors found a pattern suggesting the gap between what the facility was supposed to be doing and what was actually happening on the floor was wide enough to cite, and wide enough to flag as a repeated problem.
No actual harm to a resident was documented in connection with this specific deficiency. That is worth noting. It is also worth noting what it does not mean. A severity level that reads "no actual harm with potential for more than minimal harm" is not a clean bill of health. It is a finding that the conditions were present for harm to occur. In infection control, that window between a lapse and an outcome can close quickly.
The facility reported a correction date of October 14, 2025, roughly six weeks after inspectors completed their visit. Whether the steps taken in those six weeks addressed the underlying pattern, or simply brought the paperwork into order, is not something the inspection report resolves.
Good Samaritan Society Sioux Falls Center is part of the Good Samaritan Society, one of the largest nonprofit providers of senior care services in the country. The Sioux Falls facility operates in a city that serves as a regional hub for health care across the Dakotas, drawing residents from a wide surrounding area.
Nine deficiencies in a single inspection is not a number that passes without notice. Complaint surveys, by their nature, are targeted, focused on specific concerns that prompted someone to make a call. When inspectors arrive in response to a complaint and leave with nine findings, the picture that emerges is of a facility where the problems extend beyond whatever originally triggered the visit.
The inspection report does not name the residents affected, does not describe the specific practices that fell short, and does not detail what the facility's infection control program looked like before or after the visit. What it records is a pattern. A pattern means inspectors saw it more than once. It means the failure was not a bad day or a staffing gap on a single shift. It was something woven into the way the facility was operating.
Infection control in nursing homes became a subject of intense national scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic, when long-term care facilities accounted for a disproportionate share of deaths. The lessons from that period, about hand hygiene, about isolation protocols, about the speed with which an infectious disease can move through a shared living environment, were supposed to have changed how these facilities operate. Citations like this one suggest the change has not always held.
The residents at Good Samaritan Society Sioux Falls Center did not choose to live in a facility with a pattern of infection control failures. Most did not choose the facility at all in any meaningful sense. They arrived because they needed care they could not get elsewhere, and they stayed because leaving was not an option. The infection control program that inspectors found falling short in September was the one standing between them and whatever comes next.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Good Samaritan Society Sioux Falls Center from 2025-09-05 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 24, 2026 · Our methodology
GOOD SAMARITAN SOCIETY SIOUX FALLS CENTER in SIOUX FALLS, SD was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 5, 2025.
The infection control citation, issued under a category reserved for deficiencies with potential for more than minimal harm, was not a one-time lapse.
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.