Prescott House: Lab Orders Never Placed for New Resident - MA
The inspection, filed as a complaint investigation, found that Resident #1 had been admitted to the facility with physician orders for a complete blood count and a basic metabolic panel, two standard tests that measure everything from infection and anemia to kidney function and blood sugar levels. The orders were to be completed on January 9, 2025.
They never were.
When inspectors interviewed Nurse #3, she said she did not know why the orders for the CBC and BMP had not been entered into the computer system on January 7, 2025. She offered no explanation. There was none in the record either.
The Unit Manager, reached by phone during the investigation, described how admissions are supposed to work at the facility. When a new resident arrives, nursing staff enter that resident's medication and laboratory orders into the system. The Unit Manager said her practice is to review the physician's orders herself to make sure everything was entered correctly and completely. She said she does the best she can to check all new admission orders, and that when she was not at the facility, she believed clinical staff and the Director of Nurses would cover that function.
The Director of Nurses laid out the same expectation from her end: when a physician orders lab work, nursing orders the test, makes sure the blood gets drawn, and if it cannot be drawn for any reason, staff notify the physician or nurse practitioner. She said the Unit Manager was responsible for making sure physician orders were entered and completed for new residents.
Then she described what she actually found when she went looking.
The DON said she was unable to find any documentation showing that nursing had ordered the CBC or BMP on January 7, 2025. She was unable to find documentation that the laboratory had drawn the samples. She was unable to find documentation that anyone had contacted Resident #1's physician or nurse practitioner to report that the tests had not been completed as ordered.
Three separate failures, and no paper trail for any of them.
The inspection cited the deficiency at a harm level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting a few residents. That classification sits near the lower end of the federal scale, but it describes a gap that ran from the moment of admission through the scheduled test date and beyond, with no one catching it at any point in the chain.
The Unit Manager said she does the best she can. The DON said she expected staff to follow up. Nurse #3 said she did not know. What the record shows is that a newly admitted resident, whose physician had determined that bloodwork was warranted, went without it, and the facility had nothing to show that anyone had tried to find out why or made sure the physician knew.
What those blood tests might have shown for Resident #1 is not in the inspection record. What is in the record is the silence where the follow-up should have been.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Prescott House from 2025-11-17 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 1, 2026 · Our methodology
PRESCOTT HOUSE in NORTH ANDOVER, MA was cited for violations during a health inspection on November 17, 2025.
The orders were to be completed on January 9, 2025.
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.