The 92-bed nursing home failed to serve food at safe and appetizing temperatures across four of five hallways tested, according to inspectors who visited December 15-22 following complaints.
When surveyors asked the Director of Dining to check milk temperature on the west hall beverage cart at 12:45 PM on December 15, the thermometer read 54 degrees Fahrenheit. The director acknowledged the temperature exceeded federal Food and Drug Administration standards requiring cold foods stay at 41 degrees or below.
Staff couldn't provide basic temperature records. When inspectors asked employee #152 for lunch temperatures on December 17, he said the cook writes them on production sheets. But the sheet he handed over was blank.
"The cook did not write them down," the employee told inspectors.
Resident #58 described the daily reality of meals at Willows Center during a December 15 interview. "The food is terrible, they have not updated any meal preferences with me, I asked the manager almost three months ago," the resident said. "The food is cold, we are last to get meals sometimes they run out, I usually do not get what I ask for. When they send us food, generally it is all mixed together."
That same day at 12:50 PM, inspectors watched as Resident #58's lunch arrived: a turkey burger with lettuce and tomato, plus baked beans on the same plate. The beans had spilled across the plate and soaked into the hamburger bun.
"I wish they would have put those beans in a bowl," Resident #58 told the surveyor.
The Food Service Director confirmed the problem when inspectors showed her the plate. She admitted she had never updated Resident #58's meal preferences despite the resident's request three months earlier. Looking at the soggy presentation, the director acknowledged the baked beans were running into the hamburger bun.
Temperature control failures extended beyond individual meals. Inspectors found problems with beverage cart storage throughout multiple hallways during their week-long investigation. The milk temperature violation on the west hall represented a pattern of food safety lapses affecting residents across the facility.
Federal regulations require nursing homes to serve food that is palatable, attractive, and at safe temperatures. Hot foods must stay hot and cold foods must remain cold to prevent bacterial growth and ensure residents receive appetizing meals.
The inspection revealed a facility where basic food service standards had broken down. Staff couldn't produce temperature logs that federal law requires. Residents received meals where different foods mixed together on plates, creating unappetizing presentations. And dairy products sat at dangerous temperatures for unknown periods.
Resident #58's experience illustrated how these failures affected daily life. After waiting months for updated meal preferences, the resident continued receiving unwanted food combinations. Cold meals arrived irregularly, sometimes after the kitchen had run out of preferred options.
The Food Service Director's admission that she hadn't spoken with Resident #58 about meal preferences showed a breakdown in the most basic aspects of individualized care. Federal nursing home standards require facilities to accommodate resident food preferences and dietary needs.
Temperature violations create serious health risks for elderly residents whose immune systems may struggle to fight foodborne illness. Milk stored above 41 degrees provides ideal conditions for bacterial growth, while cold meals fail to meet basic dignity standards for people who depend entirely on the facility for nutrition.
Willows Center's 92 residents relied on staff to provide safe, appetizing meals three times daily. Instead, inspectors found a food service operation where temperature controls had failed, record-keeping was nonexistent, and resident preferences were ignored for months at a time.
The facility now faces federal enforcement action for violations that affected residents' daily nutrition and safety.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Willows Center from 2025-12-22 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.