Rochester Residence: Verbal Abuse Confirmed by Admin - PA

That was how she put it, in her own words, in a statement reviewed by inspectors at Rochester Residence and Care Center following a complaint investigation completed September 19, 2025. The facility's administrator confirmed that morning that staff had verbally abused her.

The resident is identified in inspection records only as Resident R32. What happened to her was documented through three separate accounts: her own statement, a witness statement from the occupational therapist who was in the room, and a statement from the nursing aide who was there.

The accounts do not agree on what was said. They agree on what the situation was.

R32 had wet her bed. The nursing aide, identified in records as NA Employee E4, came in to change the linens. At some point during that process, the resident was spoken to in a way that upset her enough that she later asked the occupational therapist for the aide's name. She told the therapist she had never been treated that way before. The therapist followed up with the nursing manager.

The occupational therapist, identified as OT Employee E8, provided a written statement dated September 16, 2025. She wrote that when she arrived initially for the first time, the nursing aide had just finished attending to R32 and reported she had just finished stripping the resident's bed. The therapist saw the resident later that morning. The resident asked for the name of the aide who had been present that morning stripping the bed. The resident was upset about how staff had treated her. She reported she had never been treated that way before.

The nursing aide's account, in a written statement dated September 19, 2025, was different. E4 wrote: "I did not say that to her. All I said to her was [NAME] you gotta be laying here freezing, why didn't you ring and let them know or ask for the bed pan she said she didn't know she could do that I told her that she is allowed to ring any time she wants."

The aide's statement continued. She wrote that as she was changing the bed, the occupational therapist came into the room to tell her she had done an ADL assessment on one of the residents. E4 wrote that she had all the wet linens on the floor at that point, and the therapist asked her if the resident had wet the bed. E4 said yes. Then, according to E4's own account, the occupational therapist told the resident that she was capable of ringing for the bedpan.

The aide's statement was written as a defense. But read plainly, it describes a resident who had wet her bed lying in a cold room, a staff member telling her she should have rung for the bedpan rather than lying there, and wet linens on the floor when a second staff member walked in and felt the need to reiterate to the resident that she was capable of asking for help.

R32's own words, as recorded in the inspection report, were simple. She said the staff member had been very nice. She said she didn't want to report anyone or get anyone in trouble. She said she didn't want anyone to be treated the way she had been treated.

The inspection was triggered by a complaint. Inspectors reviewed the witness statements and interviewed facility leadership. At 9:29 in the morning on September 19, 2025, the nursing home administrator confirmed that the facility had failed to protect Resident R32 from verbal abuse.

That confirmation matters because it came from inside the building. This was not a finding the facility contested. The administrator did not argue that inspectors had misread the statements or misunderstood the situation. The administrator agreed: what happened to R32 was verbal abuse.

The deficiency was cited under the federal tag F0600, which covers abuse, neglect, exploitation, and injuries of unknown origin. CMS assigned the violation a harm level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm and noted that some residents were affected. Pennsylvania state codes cited in the deficiency cover licensee responsibility, management obligations, resident care policies, and nursing services.

The harm level designation of "minimal" is a regulatory classification, not a description of what the experience was like for R32. She was a resident who had an accident in her bed. She needed help. A staff member came and changed her linens and, by the aide's own account, told her she should have rung for the bedpan rather than lying there. By the time the occupational therapist saw her later that morning, she was upset enough to ask for the aide's name. She told the therapist she had never been treated that way before.

She did not want to report anyone. She said that. She said the staff member had been very nice before this. She reported it anyway, because she did not want anyone else to go through what she went through.

The facility's plan of correction, if one was filed, is not included in the inspection materials reviewed for this article. Rochester Residence and Care Center is located at 174 Virginia Avenue in Rochester, Pennsylvania.

What is documented is this: a resident who wet her bed was made to feel she had done something wrong. She was cold. The linens were on the floor. She was told she should have rung for help. She was upset enough afterward that she asked a therapist for the name of the person who had spoken to her, and she said she never wanted anyone else to feel the way she felt that morning. The facility's own administrator looked at what happened and called it abuse.

R32 said she didn't want to get anyone in trouble. She said the staff member had been very nice.

She reported it anyway.

Full Inspection Report

The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Rochester Residence and Care Center from 2025-09-19 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.

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