PruittHealth Southwood: Therapy Visits Missed - FL
That explanation, offered to a federal inspector on September 16, accounted for why therapy visits had simply not happened on August 28 and August 29 at PruittHealth Southwood, a nursing and rehabilitation facility in Tallahassee. Two consecutive days. Staffing issues, the therapist said.
When inspectors walked down the hall and asked the administrator the same question later that afternoon, he said he wasn't aware therapy had been missing visits because of staffing problems. He knew the therapy department had recently hired some additional staff. That was the extent of it.
The gap between what the therapist knew and what the administrator knew is the core of what inspectors documented during a complaint inspection completed September 16, 2025. The facility received a citation under F0825, which covers the obligation to ensure residents receive the therapy services their physicians have ordered. The level of harm was assessed as minimal or potential, and the violation affected a small number of residents.
But the finding is not really about two days in August. It is about how a staffing shortage in the therapy department became routine enough that the physical therapist could describe it matter-of-factly to an inspector, while the person running the building had no idea it was happening.
The as-needed therapists the facility was using would arrive in the evening window, between 4 and 6 PM. Therapy sessions in a nursing home are not casual appointments. They are physician-ordered, tied to a resident's functional recovery, and scheduled around a person's condition and capacity. When a therapist shows up during dinner, the visit often does not happen. The documentation confirmed that. On August 28 and August 29, it did not happen.
PruittHealth Southwood's own therapy policy, last revised in May 2020, states that physician orders for therapy evaluations are to be addressed in a timely manner. The policy describes what a proper evaluation includes: discipline-specific findings related to the resident's functional status, underlying impairments, and prior functional level. The policy does not address what happens when there is no one available to conduct the evaluation at all.
The administrator's response to inspectors was not a defense of the scheduling arrangement or an explanation of how the facility had managed coverage. It was the straightforward acknowledgment that he had not known this was occurring. He was aware the department had been hiring. He was not aware the department had been missing visits.
That is a significant distance between two offices in the same building.
Facilities that rely on as-needed staff to fill therapy roles take on a particular scheduling risk. Per-diem therapists do not have fixed hours, and their availability is not guaranteed. When their arrival window overlaps with mealtimes, the math is simple: residents who are eating cannot be in therapy, and therapists who have no other window available leave without completing the visit. The documentation at PruittHealth Southwood showed exactly that outcome on two consecutive days in late August.
The inspector's record does not describe what those missed visits meant for the specific residents involved, what conditions they were being treated for, or how far along they were in their recovery. The citation notes that few residents were affected and that the level of harm was minimal or potential rather than actual. What it does not resolve is whether anyone at the facility, before the inspector arrived, had identified the missed visits and acted on them.
The administrator said he was not aware. The physical therapist said staffing was short and the coverage arrangement sometimes didn't work. Neither answer suggests a system that caught the problem on its own.
Residents at a rehabilitation facility are there, in most cases, because they need to get somewhere. A hip replacement that needs strengthening. A stroke that has left one side weaker than the other. A fall that shook a family's confidence in what their parent could still do alone. Therapy is not supplemental to that process. It is the process. When the therapist doesn't come, the resident stays where they are.
On August 28 and August 29 in Tallahassee, that is what happened.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Pruitthealth - Southwood from 2025-09-16 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 19, 2026 · Our methodology
PRUITTHEALTH - SOUTHWOOD in TALLAHASSEE, FL was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 16, 2025.
Staffing issues, the therapist said.
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.