Ketchikan Med Ctr: Abuse Reporting Failures - AK
On July 23, 2025, a visitor came to the resident council meeting at Ketchikan Med Ctr New Horizons Transitional Care because residents had concerns they wanted to voice, specifically about activities. The Administrator was there. She told the visitor, identified in inspection records as Visitor #3, that she didn't want the meeting to turn political. Then she asked the visitor to leave. More than once.
Visitor #3 left. "I didn't want to disrupt the resident council meeting or cause a problem," the visitor told inspectors on September 8.
The Chief Nursing Officer was also in that meeting. She confirmed, in an interview on September 4, that the Administrator had told the visitor they could not stay. She also confirmed what happened among the residents themselves: several of them said, out loud, that they wanted the visitor to remain.
Nobody listened to them.
The facility's own written policies describe the resident council as a vehicle for empowering residents and giving them a voice about their care. A separate visitation policy states that residents may have visitors of their choosing, at the time of their choosing, and specifically names resident advocates as people residents are permitted to visit with. The facility's Resident Rights form, available to all residents, promises the right to exercise rights without interference, coercion, discrimination, or reprisal.
Inspectors reviewing the facility's Resident Council Meetings policy found no documentation that residents were permitted to invite visitors to their own meetings, despite that being their right.
The deficiency was cited at a level of harm described as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting many residents. What it captured, at its core, was a room full of people who had something to say, had arranged for someone to help them say it, and were told by the person running the building that it wasn't going to happen that way.
The residents said they wanted the visitor to stay. The visitor left anyway.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Ketchikan Med Ctr New Horizons Transitional Care from 2025-09-09 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 4, 2026 · Our methodology
KETCHIKAN MED CTR NEW HORIZONS TRANSITIONAL CARE in KETCHIKAN, AK was cited for abuse-related violations during a health inspection on September 9, 2025.
She told the visitor, identified in inspection records as Visitor #3, that she didn't want the meeting to turn political.
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.