Pelican Health Randolph: PTAC Gaps Let Outside In - NC
Inspectors visited the facility on September 12, 2025, as part of a complaint investigation and walked through four rooms on three different hallways. In each one, they found the packaged terminal air conditioning unit, the kind of self-contained heating and cooling system built into an exterior wall, was not properly sealed to the wall around it. Standing inside the rooms, inspectors could see daylight through the gaps.
The gaps were not small. In two of the four rooms, inspectors measured the opening at two inches across the top of the unit. In one of those rooms, the unit itself was leaning inward, tilting toward the room rather than sitting flush against the wall. On the right side of that same unit, there was a large open area where the wall and the unit met nothing but air.
Underneath that leaning unit, inspectors found wet towels and sheets with brown stains on them. The Regional Maintenance Director later confirmed the unit had been leaning badly enough that water was leaking out of it. The towels and sheets were there to catch the water.
In the other two rooms, the gaps ran about one inch across the top of the units. In both cases, the insulation that was supposed to fill the space had crumbled, with pieces of it scattered near the remaining chunk. One room had insulation described as being in crumbled condition. The other had smaller pieces broken off from the main piece, scattered in the vicinity.
Inspectors returned to all four rooms just after 11 in the morning, this time with the Maintenance Director, the Regional Maintenance Director, and the Administrator walking alongside them. Nothing had changed. The units were in the same condition they had been in nearly ninety minutes earlier.
It was during that second walkthrough that the Regional Maintenance Director explained what had happened. The electrical cords on the PTAC units had been replaced recently. To do that, the units had to be pulled out of the wall and then put back in. Each unit has three points of attachment, a screw at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom. After the cord replacements were finished and the units were reinstalled, only the middle screws were secured. The top and bottom screws were left out.
The Maintenance Director, the Regional Maintenance Director, and the Administrator all told inspectors they had not been aware of the gaps in any of the four rooms before that morning.
The Administrator, interviewed separately at 11:15 that morning, said she expected PTAC units to be installed correctly in residents' rooms and that maintenance staff would make the repairs.
The four affected rooms were 108, 110, 135, and 151. Inspectors identified the problem in four of the eight rooms they reviewed across three of the four hallways checked.
A gap in an exterior wall is not an abstract concern in a building where people sleep, bathe, and spend most of their hours. Outside air carries humidity, insects, and whatever temperature the season brings. A unit leaning inward, shedding water onto the floor, collecting it in stained towels shoved underneath, is not a homelike environment by any reasonable measure. It is a maintenance failure that residents were living around, quietly, until someone came to look.
The inspection was completed September 17, 2025. CMS cited the deficiency under the standard requiring facilities to provide a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment. The level of harm was classified as minimal harm or potential for actual harm.
The wet towels were still there when inspectors first walked in. Nobody had put them there that morning.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Pelican Health Randolph LLC 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 27, 2026 · Our methodology
Pelican Health Randolph LLC in Charlotte, NC was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 17, 2025.
Inspectors visited the facility on September 12, 2025, as part of a complaint investigation and walked through four rooms on three different hallways.
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.