Adel Acres: Provider Fails to Return Urgent Calls - IA
That account came from the Director of Nursing at Adel Acres, who described the incident to inspectors during a complaint investigation completed October 16. She said she expected urgent calls to be returned within five to ten minutes. She said return calls from the provider "have not been very good."
The problem runs deeper than one dropped call. The Director of Nursing told inspectors she had read through residents' progress notes and found repeated entries documenting that the provider hadn't returned a call, or had returned one several hours later. She said the facility had tried to set up a meeting with the provider to work through communication problems, including confusion over who the point of contact was supposed to be. The facility had to cancel that meeting and had not yet rescheduled it.
Staff A, identified in the report as a nurse, described a system held together by persistence and workarounds. If a provider doesn't call back by end of shift, she calls again. When the provider orders medications, the pharmacy sometimes receives the order before the facility does, leaving nurses unaware a new medication has been prescribed. X-ray reports sometimes go directly to the provider and never reach the facility, so staff have to call to find out whether results are back.
The LPN and MDS Coordinator, identified as Staff O, put it plainly: the provider is hard to work with and does not return calls. During business hours, she said, she routes around the problem by calling a transition nurse care manager. After hours, if the situation is urgent, she calls repeatedly until she reaches someone, or contacts the Medical Director instead.
The facility's own physician services policy states a physician will be available around the clock for emergency care. Inspectors cited the deficiency at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting a small number of residents.
The meeting to address the communication breakdown had not been rescheduled as of the inspection.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Adel Acres from 2025-10-16 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Download the official CMS inspection PDF from Medicare.gov
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
Adel Acres in Adel, IA was cited for violations during a health inspection on October 16, 2025.
That account came from the Director of Nursing at Adel Acres, who described the incident to inspectors during a complaint investigation completed October 16.
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.