Three Creeks Post Acute: Power Outage Heat Risk - WA
That finding sits at the center of a December 2025 complaint inspection at the 1310 Deane Street facility in Pullman, Washington. State inspectors, working on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, documented that the nursing home lacked an adequate contingency plan to protect residents from heat exposure in the event of another power outage. The violation was cited under Washington state administrative code and listed as affecting many residents.
The inspection report does not specify when the prior outage occurred, how long it lasted, or whether any residents were harmed during it. What it records is the gap that remained afterward: the facility had not put in place what would be needed to protect people if it happened again.
Nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable people in any community during an infrastructure failure. Many are elderly, many have conditions that affect how their bodies regulate temperature, and most cannot simply leave on their own. A power outage that cuts heating in winter, or cooling in summer, can become a medical emergency within hours for people in that situation. The inspection report does not specify which direction the heat risk ran, whether the concern was residents becoming too cold or too hot, only that the plan to address it was missing.
Three Creeks Post Acute is a post-acute care facility, meaning it serves residents who are often in a transitional period after hospitalization, recovering from surgery, illness, or injury. That population can be particularly sensitive to environmental stress. The inspection did not assign a level of harm beyond potential for minimal harm, but it noted the affected population as many residents, not a single individual or a small group.
The citation references WAC 388-97-0880(3), the Washington state regulation governing emergency preparedness requirements for nursing facilities. The deficiency was recorded on December 22, 2025.
The inspection report does not include statements from facility administrators, direct care staff, or residents. It does not describe what emergency equipment the facility had on hand, whether backup generators were present or functional, or what steps, if any, staff took during the prior outage to keep residents safe. Those details are not in the record.
What the record does show is that a complaint was filed, that inspectors came, and that when they looked at what the facility had prepared for the next power failure, they found it wasn't enough.
Emergency preparedness planning in nursing homes became a more prominent regulatory focus after a series of high-profile disasters, including deaths at facilities during hurricanes and heat events, revealed how quickly the absence of a workable plan could turn a power disruption into a catastrophe. The requirement is not new. The expectation that a facility know, in advance, where its residents will go and how they will be kept safe if the building loses power has been part of nursing home oversight for years.
Three Creeks Post Acute had apparently experienced a power outage and emerged from it without documenting a plan sufficient to satisfy state inspectors reviewing the facility's emergency preparedness. The inspection report does not say the facility had no plan at all, only that what existed did not meet the standard required.
For the residents at 1310 Deane Street, the distinction may matter less than the underlying reality: if the power goes out again in Pullman, in winter, the people inside that building are counting on someone having already worked out what comes next.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Three Creeks Post Acute from 2025-12-22 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: August 20, 2026 · Our methodology
Three Creeks Post Acute in PULLMAN, WA was cited for violations during a health inspection on December 22, 2025.
That finding sits at the center of a December 2025 complaint inspection at the 1310 Deane Street facility in Pullman, Washington.
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.