Putnam Center: Medication Route Violations Found - WV
The October 2025 complaint inspection found that residents who were NPO, a medical designation meaning nothing by mouth, had been receiving medication via tube. The Director of Nursing told inspectors that all the nurses know which patients are NPO and that the medication was given via tube. That explanation was offered as reassurance. It raised a different question.
If nurses knew the residents were NPO and administered medication by tube accordingly, why did the facility's Medication Regimen Reviews show no route discrepancies at all?
Those reviews exist specifically to catch problems like this. A pharmacist examines each resident's medication regimen on a regular basis, looking for errors, interactions, and exactly the kind of route mismatch that inspectors were now asking about. None had been identified. None had been reported.
The gap between what the Director of Nursing described as common knowledge among staff and what the formal review process recorded is the core of what inspectors found. Either the reviews were not examining route administration carefully enough to detect what was happening, or the discrepancies were present in the records and not being flagged, or both.
CMS cited the facility under F0756, which covers the requirement that a pharmacist review each resident's drug regimen and report irregularities to the attending physician and the director of nursing. The citation rated the level of harm as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and noted that some residents were affected.
NPO status is not a minor clinical detail. Residents are placed on nothing-by-mouth restrictions for reasons that range from swallowing disorders that create aspiration risk to post-surgical protocols to preparation for procedures. The route by which a medication enters the body matters. A medication given orally to a resident who cannot safely swallow, or whose digestive tract is not supposed to receive anything, can cause direct harm. The tube route, when it is the correct route, is not interchangeable with oral administration as a matter of convenience. It is the route because the oral route is contraindicated.
What the inspection record does not resolve is how long this was occurring before a complaint prompted inspectors to look. The Medication Regimen Reviews had not flagged it. That suggests the reviews were either not capturing route information with enough specificity to detect the problem, or that whoever was conducting them did not identify the discrepancy as one worth reporting.
The Director of Nursing's statement that all the nurses know which patients are NPO implies the practice was understood and consistent. That is not the same as saying it was being documented correctly, reviewed accurately, or that the oversight system built to catch medication errors was functioning as intended.
Putnam Center is located at 300 Seville Road in Hurricane, West Virginia. The inspection was completed October 30, 2025, following a complaint.
The residents affected by the route discrepancies, the ones the Director of Nursing said the nurses already knew about, had no record of that knowledge in the reviews meant to protect them.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Putnam Center 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
PUTNAM CENTER in HURRICANE, WV was cited for violations during a health inspection on October 30, 2025.
The Director of Nursing told inspectors that all the nurses know which patients are NPO and that the medication was given via tube.
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.