Peninsula Nursing: Immediate Jeopardy Safety Violations - NY
The inspection, completed October 31, 2025, was triggered by a complaint. What inspectors found was serious enough that the facility scrambled to rewrite its own policies in the final days of October, retrain every nurse, aide, and therapist on staff, and submit written assurances to regulators, all before the inspection closed.
The failures centered on what staff were supposed to do when a resident stopped breathing or began choking. Peninsula's cardiopulmonary resuscitation policy, as it existed before October 29, did not instruct staff to begin CPR where the resident was found. That matters because moving a person in cardiac arrest, dragging them to a bed or another room, wastes the seconds that determine whether a brain survives. The revised policy, dated October 29, 2025, added that instruction for the first time.
The Heimlich Maneuver policy had its own gaps. The revision, also dated October 29, added direction to lower a choking resident to a firm surface, call 911 immediately, begin CPR starting with chest compressions before attempting rescue breaths, open the mouth and look for a visible object, and remove it only if seen. The final instruction was pointed: do not perform blind finger sweeps. That last detail is not a minor procedural note. Blind finger sweeps during a choking emergency can push an obstruction deeper into the airway.
None of those instructions were in the policy before inspectors arrived.
The facility also conducted what it described as a reevaluation of where food and snacks were stored on its units. The administrator submitted a written statement dated October 30 concluding that nourishments and snacks stored behind the nursing station, in a cupboard and a refrigerator, were safe, secure, and did not pose a risk to residents. The statement was part of the facility's effort to demonstrate to inspectors that the environment itself was not contributing to aspiration risk.
Aspiration, the entry of food or liquid into the airway rather than the esophagus, is a known and serious hazard for nursing home residents, particularly those with swallowing difficulties. It can cause pneumonia, respiratory failure, and death. The inspection record identifies residents at risk for aspiration as the population at the center of this immediate jeopardy finding.
The in-service training the facility launched on October 29 covered aspiration precautions, emergency response, supervision, rounding, and documentation. By the time the inspection closed two days later, Peninsula reported that all 41 licensed nurses on staff had completed it, 75 of 77 certified nursing assistants had completed it, the single speech therapist on staff had completed it, and both dietitians had completed it. The two CNAs who had not yet been trained represented the only gap in an otherwise complete sweep of clinical staff.
That speed, a full staff retraining completed in 48 hours, reflects the pressure that an immediate jeopardy citation creates. Facilities that fail to correct an immediate jeopardy finding face escalating federal sanctions, including fines and potential termination from Medicare and Medicaid.
What the inspection record does not say is what happened to prompt the complaint in the first place. The narrative provided covers only the facility's corrective actions, the revised policies, the administrator's statement about food storage, and the training completion numbers. It does not describe the incident or incidents that led an inspector to conclude that residents faced immediate jeopardy. It does not name the residents who were affected. It does not say whether anyone was harmed.
What it does say is that Peninsula Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, as recently as late October 2025, did not have written guidance telling its staff where to perform CPR, how to respond to a choking resident, or that pushing a finger blindly into a resident's throat could make things worse. Those instructions had to be written for the first time under the pressure of a federal inspection.
The two CNAs who had not completed the retraining as of October 31 were still working in a facility caring for residents identified as being at risk for choking and aspiration.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Peninsula Nursing and Rehabilitation Center from 2025-10-31 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
Peninsula Nursing And Rehabilitation Center in Far Rockaway, NY was cited for immediate jeopardy violations during a health inspection on October 31, 2025.
The inspection, completed October 31, 2025, was triggered by a complaint.
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.