Accela Rehab Somerton: Sanitation Violations Found - PA
That's what a federal inspection found on the morning of December 1, 2025, when inspectors walked through the second-floor nursing unit at the Philadelphia facility just before 9:30 a.m.
The tub contained piles of dirty clothing. Three razors. A soiled brief. Along the left side of the tub, socks and gowns were heaped against an open trashcan that held more soiled briefs, the clothing touching the waste directly.
A licensed practical nurse identified in the inspection report as Employee E3 was present during that first walkthrough. Twenty-one minutes later, at 9:36 a.m., inspectors returned to the same shower room. This time the facility's housekeeping staff and the administrator came along. The conditions were unchanged.
The inspection continued one minute after that, at 9:37 a.m., in the soiled utility room down the hall. What inspectors found there wasn't better. Two uncovered trashcans were overflowing. A bag of soiled clothing had been left on the floor, and the bag had torn open, the contents spilling out and making direct contact with the floor.
The administrator was present for both of those observations.
The inspection covered one of two nursing units at the facility, the second floor only. The violations were cited under the federal standard requiring nursing homes to maintain a safe, clean, and sanitary environment in areas used by residents and staff. The level of harm was classified as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with few residents affected.
That classification reflects the regulatory framework's lowest tier of harm. It does not mean the conditions were minor. Soiled briefs and used razors stored in a shower room represent a direct contamination risk in a space where residents are supposed to be bathed. Clothing touching open waste containers in a resident-use area is not a paperwork problem. It is a sanitation failure in the most literal sense, the kind that can spread infection to the people who live there.
The facility administrator was cited by name in the inspection's regulatory reference, which invoked the Pennsylvania administrative code section governing administrator responsibility.
The inspection was a complaint survey, meaning someone reported concerns about the facility before inspectors arrived. The report does not identify who filed the complaint or what it alleged. What inspectors documented when they got there was a shower room that had become a dumping ground and a utility room that had been left in a state that violated basic sanitation standards, with the administrator standing next to them as they wrote it down.
Accela Rehab and Care Center at Somerton operates on Somerton Road in the far northeast corner of Philadelphia. The facility serves residents who depend on staff for bathing, hygiene, and daily care, people who cannot simply walk away from the conditions around them or advocate loudly for themselves when those conditions deteriorate.
The inspection report documents no plan of correction. Under Pennsylvania and federal rules, an approved plan is required for the facility to remain in compliance with program participation requirements. Plans of correction for nursing homes become public 14 days after the documents are made available to the facility.
What the inspection captured, in its spare and clinical language, is a second floor where the people responsible for keeping the environment clean had, at some point before 9:15 on a Monday morning, decided that a shower tub was a reasonable place to leave used razors and a soiled brief. Nobody had cleaned it up before inspectors arrived. Nobody had cleaned it up in the 21 minutes between the first walkthrough and the second. The administrator stood in the room and confirmed what inspectors were looking at.
The residents on that floor still needed to use that shower.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Accela Rehab and Care Center At Somerton from 2025-12-01 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: June 19, 2026 · Our methodology
ACCELA REHAB AND CARE CENTER AT SOMERTON in PHILADELPHIA, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on December 1, 2025.
The tub contained piles of dirty clothing.
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.