Auburn Skilled Nursing: Call Light Failures - OH
Inspectors visiting Auburn Skilled Nursing and Rehab on September 2, 2025, found Resident #12 sitting in her wheelchair in her room, not in the recliner. The recliner was reclined. The footrest wouldn't close without significant force. She told them she couldn't get out of the chair without her son's help.
The string she believed would summon staff if she needed assistance was attached to the arm of the recliner. It controlled the room light.
The actual call light for her room was under the bed covers. The other was on the floor.
At 2:03 in the afternoon, a registered nurse identified in the report as RN #105 stood in the room and confirmed what inspectors were looking at. Both call lights were out of reach. The recliner was too difficult for the resident to operate. A patient who had knee surgery, RN #105 said, should have a functional chair for safety. That confirmation came four minutes after inspectors first observed the room.
Two days later, the facility's director of nursing described the same problem in broader terms. Resident #12 wasn't the only one. Resident #16 also had a call light that was easily confused with a light cord. The director of nursing confirmed that Resident #12's recliner was too difficult for a post-surgical resident to operate safely.
The inspection was triggered by a complaint. The violation was categorized as having minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting few residents. That categorization is worth sitting with. A woman who cannot close her own chair, cannot reach a call button, and has spent an unknown stretch of time believing a lamp cord is her lifeline to staff represents, in the language of federal inspection reports, the lower end of the harm scale.
What the report doesn't say is how long this had been going on. It doesn't say who placed the call light under the bed covers or left it on the floor. It doesn't say how many times Resident #12 pulled the light cord thinking someone would come. It doesn't say whether anyone did.
What it does say is that the facility had a written policy, dated September 2022, stating that every resident would be provided with a means to call staff directly for assistance from their bed, from toileting and bathing areas, and from the floor. Three years after that policy was written, a resident recovering from knee surgery was sitting in a wheelchair in her room because her recliner was stuck open and she couldn't force it closed, with a call light she couldn't reach and a cord in her hand that turned on a lamp.
The registered nurse who confirmed the violations did so in the room, in real time, four minutes into the inspection observation. The director of nursing confirmed them two days later. Neither account in the inspection record suggests surprise. The recliner's footrest required significant force to close. That is a condition that develops over time, or exists from the start. Either way, it was there when inspectors arrived.
Resident #12's son was the person she relied on to get out of the chair.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Auburn Skilled Nursing and Rehab from 2025-09-09 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
AUBURN SKILLED NURSING AND REHAB in SALEM, OH was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 9, 2025.
Inspectors visiting Auburn Skilled Nursing and Rehab on September 2, 2025, found Resident #12 sitting in her wheelchair in her room, not in the recliner.
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.