Oskaloosa Care Center: Infection Control Training Gaps - IA
The licensed practical nurse was hired January 8, 2025. Three certified nursing assistants joined the staff after her, in April, July, and August. When inspectors reviewed personnel files on September 17, none of the four had documentation showing they had completed infection control training.
That was four of the six staff members whose files inspectors reviewed.
The facility's own records described an in-service training program that applied to all departments, including new hires. An attendance calendar listed infection control as a training topic. The program existed on paper. The documentation that staff had gone through it did not.
The director of nursing, interviewed at 12:41 p.m. on the day of the inspection, said she did not see any additional education in the staff's files. She said the facility would work to build out its training program.
Oskaloosa Care Center reported a census of 76 residents at the time of the inspection.
Infection control training in a nursing home is not an abstraction. The staff members who handle residents most directly, the nursing assistants who help with bathing and toileting and repositioning, are also the staff most likely to transmit infections from room to room if they haven't been taught proper hand hygiene, isolation precautions, and how to handle soiled materials. A nurse hired in January and still working in September without that training is a nurse who spent eight months in close contact with vulnerable residents without verified baseline knowledge of how to keep them from getting sick.
The August hire had been on the job for less than a month when inspectors arrived. The July hire had been there two months. The April hire, five months.
None of them had documentation.
The deficiency was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, meaning inspectors did not identify a resident who had been hurt as a direct result. That designation reflects what inspectors could confirm, not a ceiling on what the gap could have produced. Nursing homes house people whose immune systems are weakened by age, chronic illness, and the physical toll of whatever brought them there in the first place. Infections that a healthier person might shake off in a week can kill a nursing home resident.
The director of nursing did not dispute the finding. She acknowledged what the files showed and said the facility would address it.
What the files showed was a training calendar that listed the right topics and a stack of personnel records that didn't reflect anyone having sat through them. The facility had a program in name. It had not built the infrastructure to make sure new employees actually completed it before they started working with residents.
The inspection was a complaint survey, meaning someone contacted regulators before inspectors arrived. The report does not describe what prompted the complaint or whether it was related to the training gap inspectors found.
Oskaloosa Care Center sits on Highway 432 in a small city of roughly 11,000 people in south-central Iowa. For many of its 76 residents, it is the only care option within a reasonable distance of their families.
The director of nursing said they would work to build their training program. That is where the record ends.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Oskaloosa Care Center from 2025-09-17 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 28, 2026 · Our methodology
Oskaloosa Care Center in Oskaloosa, IA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 17, 2025.
The licensed practical nurse was hired January 8, 2025.
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.