Rennes Health and Rehab: Bath Drain Blocked, Resident Unresponsive - WI
RN J had come to check the crash cart and to ask R1 to please get out of the bath. What she found instead required a sternal rub, a pulse check that came back at 128 beats per minute, and an immediate question she had to leave the room to answer: whether R1 was a full code.
She told CNA Q to stay in the spa room with him. Another nurse called 911.
The water would not drain. When staff finally looked, they found the reason: four washcloths had been stuffed into the drain at the bottom of the tub.
CNA G was called to the 100-wing spa and asked to unplug the tub. He reached his hand and arm into the water to do it. "It was too warm and unpleasant to submerge my hand in," he told a surveyor the following morning, "but I needed to get the drain unplugged." He pulled out four washcloths. The drain, he said, must have been slow because of them.
When the surveyor asked what R1 looked like at that point, CNA G paused. "Well I am not good with colors," he said, "but kind of like red tinged from chest level down."
R1 was still not responsive. He was gurgling, as though secretions had pooled in his airway. And according to CNA G, five staff members were standing in the spa room at that moment, watching.
EMS arrived shortly after the drain was cleared. It took four people to lift R1 out of the tub. Oxygen was placed on him once he was out.
The surveyor asked CNA G whether he had ever been trained on the spa or its controls. He had not.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rated this deficiency at the highest level of harm: Immediate Jeopardy to resident health or safety.
What the inspection report leaves plain is the sequence. A resident was left in a tub long enough for the water to become, by one staff member's account, too hot to submerge a hand in. The drain had been blocked, whether by accident or otherwise the report does not say. By the time anyone came to check on him, R1 was red from the chest down, unresponsive, and making the sound of a man whose airway was filling.
Five people stood in that room watching him.
The nurse who found him had to leave to look up his code status before anyone could fully act. The aide who cleared the drain was never trained on the equipment. It took EMS, four responders, to move him.
The inspection was completed October 13, 2025, triggered by a complaint. The facility, at 1970 Navajo Street in Rhinelander, is certified under CMS provider number 525589.
R1 left that spa room on a stretcher, breathing with help, red from the chest down, four washcloths sitting on the floor beside a tub that had finally begun to drain.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Rennes Health and Rehab Center-rhinelander from 2025-10-13 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 25, 2026 · Our methodology
RENNES HEALTH AND REHAB CENTER-RHINELANDER in RHINELANDER, WI was cited for violations during a health inspection on October 13, 2025.
RN J had come to check the crash cart and to ask R1 to please get out of the bath.
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.