Accura Healthcare of Creston: Feeding Tube Care Failures - IA
The October 30 inspection at Accura Healthcare of Creston documented what happened on the morning of October 25, when staff attempted to feed the resident through his tube. The resident had recently had surgery.
Staff B, a nurse, was administering the tube feeding when the resident told her he was in pain. He also squirmed. She kept going.
Her explanation to inspectors five days later was direct and, in its own way, alarming. She said she continued the feeding because she believed the resident hadn't eaten enough on previous shifts and thought his pain might just be hunger. She said she had no idea what his squirming meant. She knew patients could be tender after surgeries. Based on his reaction, she told inspectors, she didn't know whether to stop or finish.
She finished.
The same inspection documented a separate failure earlier that morning involving a different staff member, identified as Staff A. That employee had been unable to access the resident's feeding tube and, rather than escalate the problem, did not call the on-call nurse. The Director of Nursing told inspectors on October 30 that Staff A should have called the on-call nurse and escalated the situation as needed. She said Staff B should have stopped what she was doing and contacted the DON.
Neither of them did.
There was also a question about equipment. At some point, staff had apparently been unable to administer the resident's medications through his feeding tube. The Director of Nursing told inspectors that piston syringes, which were accessible in the facility, would have fit the resident's tube and could have been used to deliver his medications. An inspector confirmed this firsthand, observing both the syringes and the tube. The syringes would have worked.
The citation was tagged F0726, which covers the competency of nursing staff, and was rated at minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with few residents affected. That rating reflects the regulatory floor for the citation, not a clinical determination that the resident suffered no injury. The inspection record does not say whether the resident was harmed by the continued feeding.
What it does say is that a man who had recently undergone surgery told a nurse he was in pain while she was pushing food into his body through a tube, and she kept going because she weighed his complaint against the possibility that he was simply hungry, and decided to finish.
The Director of Nursing, when told what Staff B had done, did not say it was a close call. She said Staff B should have stopped.
The facility's own undated policy on feeding tube care states that tubes should be used in accordance with current clinical standards, with interventions taken to prevent complications to the extent possible. The policy does not appear to have guided what happened on October 25.
The resident confirmed to inspectors that he had told Staff B about his pain when she began the feeding. That detail, offered by the resident himself, closed the only gap in the account. Staff B did not dispute that he had complained. She disputed what the complaint meant.
He said he was in pain. She decided to keep going anyway.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Accura Healthcare of Creston from 2025-10-30 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
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 6, 2026 · Our methodology
Accura Healthcare of Creston in Creston, IA was cited for violations during a health inspection on October 30, 2025.
The resident had recently had surgery.
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.