Tamarack Ridge: Pain Medication Gaps Leave Resident Waiting - OH
The inspection, filed as a complaint, centered on Resident 96, who was prescribed Norco, an opioid used to manage moderate to severe pain, and pregabalin, a medication used to treat nerve pain and certain seizure conditions. At some point on December 22, 2025, neither prescription was available. Someone at the facility reached out to a provider, but the exact sequence of who called whom, and when, became the crux of the problem inspectors documented.
Nurse Practitioner 210 told inspectors she was not contacted on December 22 about either medication. She said she learned about the situation early the following morning, at which point she sent prescriptions for both drugs to the pharmacy. By then, a day had passed.
Her account of what happened the night before was specific, and troubling. She confirmed she had spoken with a nurse from the facility and had gone through Resident 96's medications with that nurse. The prescriptions for Norco and pregabalin never came up. "The nurse did not tell her prescriptions were needed for pregabalin and Norco," inspectors recorded, "and if the nurse did not tell her a prescription was needed then I don't know."
That last phrase, "I don't know," was where the accountability ended. NP 210 suggested that perhaps the on-call nurse practitioner or a physician had been contacted instead. Inspectors found no evidence that the gap was filled by anyone else that night.
The facility's own pain management policy, dated March 31, 2016, stated that assessment and adequate treatment of pain was central to the physical and psychological well-being of residents. What the policy did not prevent was a nurse completing a medication verification call without disclosing the actual reason the call was necessary.
The violation was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with few residents affected. That classification reflects the regulatory framework's assessment of documented injury, not the experience of sitting through a night without medication prescribed specifically to manage pain.
Norco combines hydrocodone and acetaminophen. It is not prescribed casually. Pregabalin is used when nerve pain has not responded to simpler treatments. A resident on both drugs is a resident whose pain has been evaluated and deemed serious enough to require a controlled substance and a second medication working alongside it. The gap was not a missed vitamin.
What the inspection report does not say is how long Resident 96. went without the medications, whether anyone checked on the resident through the night, or whether the resident communicated distress to staff. Those details were not captured in the four pages of documentation inspectors produced, or at least not in the portion made available. What is captured is the moment NP 210 was finally told, early on December 23, and acted immediately, which raises the question of what would have happened if someone had told her the day before.
The communication failure here was not a system crash or a pharmacy error. A nurse had a provider on the phone, went through a resident's medications, and did not say the words: we need prescriptions for two of these. Whether that was an oversight, a misunderstanding about who was responsible for flagging it, or something else, the inspection report does not resolve. NP 210 said she wasn't told. The facility's account of what the nurse understood or intended is not recorded in these pages.
Tamarack Ridge is a rehabilitation and long-term care facility in Kent, a city in Portage County in northeastern Ohio. The complaint that triggered this inspection was filed and investigated in December 2025.
Resident 96 got the prescriptions the next morning. Whether the pain was managed in the hours before that is not something the inspection report answers.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Tamarack Ridge Health and Rehabilitation from 2025-12-23 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
TAMARACK RIDGE HEALTH AND REHABILITATION in KENT, OH was cited for violations during a health inspection on December 23, 2025.
At some point on December 22, 2025, neither prescription was available.
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.