Riverside Health & Rehab: Dialysis Records Failures - PA
The records were supposed to travel in both directions. Before each dialysis session, nursing staff at Riverside were to document a pre-dialysis assessment. After each session, staff were to receive a report from the dialysis provider, or review what the dialysis center had filled in on a shared communication form. For three of the six dialysis patients inspectors reviewed, that system broke down repeatedly, and in one case, across nearly the entire month of August.
That resident, identified in the inspection report as Resident R3, has end-stage renal disease — kidney failure — along with hypertension and diabetes. R3 has been receiving dialysis since being admitted to Riverside, going three times a week, with a chair time scheduled at 6:15 in the morning. Inspectors pulled the dialysis communication forms and found the same problem on 14 separate dates: August 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 18, 22, 25, 27, and 29, then September 1, 3, 5, and 8. Each form was incomplete, absent of any information from the dialysis center.
R3's care plan, last revised in August, did not include dialysis services at all.
A second resident, R1, has stage 4 chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and heart failure, and attends dialysis on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 10:30 a.m. Two of R1's communication forms, from August 29 and September 2, were incomplete, missing the dialysis center's information. R1's care plan, revised as recently as August 25, also contained no mention of dialysis.
The third resident, R4, has stage 4 chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and dementia, and goes to dialysis on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. R4's care plan did reference dialysis services. But one communication form from August 26 was incomplete, with nothing from the dialysis center. On a separate, undocumented date, a form was incomplete in the other direction — nothing from the facility itself.
The Director of Nursing, interviewed by inspectors on the afternoon of September 9, confirmed that the facility had failed to maintain consistent dialysis communication for all three residents.
Dialysis is not a routine treatment that can be loosely tracked. Patients with kidney failure depend on it to filter waste and fluid their kidneys can no longer remove. What happens during each session, including how much fluid was removed, whether the patient had complications, or whether their blood pressure dropped, matters for how nursing staff care for that person when they return. A communication form that comes back blank from the dialysis center is a gap in that chain.
For R3, that gap appeared 14 times in five weeks.
The inspection was filed as a complaint, and the level of harm was assessed as minimal harm or potential for actual harm. Inspectors cited the facility under Pennsylvania code governing clinical records and nursing services.
What the records did not show was any indication that the facility identified the pattern on its own.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Riverside Health & Rehab Center 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: June 30, 2026 · Our methodology
RIVERSIDE HEALTH & REHAB CENTER in MCKEESPORT, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 9, 2025.
The records were supposed to travel in both directions.
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.