St. Anne's Retirement Community: Infection Control Lapse - PA
Federal inspectors documented the lapse during a December 2025 survey at the Columbia facility. The resident, identified in inspection records as Resident 2, had a feeding tube delivering liquid nutrition directly into the gastrointestinal tract. That device alone, under the facility's own written policy, was enough to require what are called enhanced barrier precautions, a set of protections designed to slow the spread of dangerous drug-resistant organisms even when a resident shows no signs of infection.
The precautions exist precisely because carriers often show no symptoms. The point is to treat the risk as present regardless.
Nobody had treated it that way for Resident 2.
Inspectors observed the resident's room on every day of the survey. No signage. No personal protective equipment staged at the entrance. Nothing to signal to a nurse, an aide, or anyone else walking through that door that extra care was required. The tube feeding was running at 9 a.m. on December 23. The room remained unmarked the following day.
St. Anne's had reviewed and updated its own enhanced barrier precautions policy as recently as February 27, 2025, less than ten months before inspectors arrived. That policy listed feeding tubes explicitly. It stated that the facility would post appropriate signage to communicate to staff which residents required the precautions. The policy did not leave room for interpretation about whether a feeding tube qualified. It did not.
When inspectors interviewed a licensed staff member identified as Employee E4 on the morning of December 24, the employee confirmed both things: that Resident 2 met the criteria for enhanced barrier precautions because of the tube feeding, and that those precautions were not in place.
The confirmation came from inside the building. Staff knew the standard. The room still had nothing in it.
Enhanced barrier precautions are not a new concept in long-term care. They were developed specifically for nursing home settings, where residents with wounds, catheters, feeding tubes, and other indwelling devices live in close proximity to one another, share staff, and often have weakened immune systems that leave them less able to fight off infections that a healthier person might shrug off. The precautions require gowns and gloves during hands-on care, and signage so that every person entering the room knows what they are walking into.
The absence of that signage means staff providing care to Resident 2 may have moved between rooms without the protective equipment the situation required. Inspectors classified the violation as causing minimal harm or potential for actual harm, the lower end of the federal severity scale. One resident was identified as affected.
That classification reflects where things stood when inspectors arrived. It does not reflect what could have moved through a nursing home ward in the days or weeks before they did.
St. Anne's was cited under two Pennsylvania nursing home regulations, covering resident care policies and nursing services. The inspection was completed on December 24, 2025.
Resident 2 was still there. The tube was still running. The doorway was still unmarked.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for St Anne's Retirement Community from 2025-12-24 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 19, 2026 · Our methodology
st anne's retirement community in COLUMBIA, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on December 24, 2025.
Federal inspectors documented the lapse during a December 2025 survey at the Columbia facility.
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.