ARC at Cincinnati: Infection Control Failures Found - OH
The inspection, completed December 23, 2025, was triggered by a complaint. What inspectors found when they arrived was not a single lapse but a pattern: respiratory equipment belonging to two residents with serious lung conditions left out in the open, day after day, while staff acknowledged they knew better and administrators said they expected more.
Resident #06 was scheduled to receive albuterol sulfate every six hours and sodium chloride twice daily through a nebulizer. The nebulizer machine, along with its canister and connectors, was observed sitting on the resident's over-the-bed table without any protective covering on December 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. Five separate observations over five days. No bag.
When inspectors spoke with LPN #02 on December 19, she confirmed the equipment should be stored in a plastic bag when not in use. She said there was no bag in the room. She said she had meant to get one. She said she got busy and forgot.
The Director of Nursing said the same thing the administrator said: respiratory equipment should be covered. It should not be sitting on a table. Nurses should have handled it. Nobody disputed what should have happened. It just hadn't.
The second resident's situation was, in some ways, worse.
Resident #37 has lived at the facility since June 2023. The diagnoses in the record read like a catalog of respiratory fragility: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, moderate persistent asthma, congestive heart failure, obstructive sleep apnea, a history of smoking. A cognitive assessment from November 2025 gave the resident a BIMS score of seven, indicating severe cognitive impairment. Resident #37 uses a CPAP machine to breathe at night and cannot be expected to manage the equipment independently.
Inspectors observed the CPAP mask lying on the resident's dresser, uncovered, on December 15, December 20, and December 21. Three visits. Same dresser. No bag.
CNA #29, interviewed on December 21, confirmed he just set CPAP masks on top of the dresser when they weren't in use. CNA #31, interviewed the following day, said CPAP masks were supposed to be stored in a plastic bag. LPN #10 said the same. Everyone knew the standard. The mask kept ending up on the dresser anyway.
When the Director of Nursing was asked about the facility's policy for storing CPAP masks, she said the facility did not have one. She said she expected staff to use a bag. She said she expected the mask not to end up on a dresser or in a drawer. But there was no written policy requiring it, and for a resident with severe cognitive impairment who could not advocate for proper equipment handling, the gap between expectation and practice had been sitting on that dresser for weeks.
The administrator, interviewed December 21, said she expected staff to store CPAP masks in a bag when not in use.
What the inspection captured was a facility where the right answer was never in dispute. Every nurse, every aide, every manager who was asked gave the correct response. Bag the equipment. Cover it when it's not in use. Keep it clean. The knowledge was there. The bags were not, or were not retrieved, or were not required by any written standard that anyone was accountable to follow.
For Resident #37, severely cognitively impaired, dependent on a CPAP mask to manage a breathing disorder compounded by COPD and heart failure, the equipment that goes against the face each night had been left on an open dresser surface repeatedly across a week of inspections. The facility's own Director of Nursing could not point to a single written rule that said it had to be any different.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Arc At Cincinnati from 2025-12-23 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Download the official CMS inspection PDF from Medicare.gov
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 19, 2026 · Our methodology
ARC AT CINCINNATI in CINCINNATI, OH was cited for violations during a health inspection on December 23, 2025.
The inspection, completed December 23, 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.