Heartwood Extended Healthcare: Infection Control Failures - WA
That detail emerged during a March 27 inspection, when the facility's central supply worker confirmed it directly. Residents had come into the laundry room and gone through unlabeled clothes looking for their own. The same room, at that moment, held a barrel of soiled linens and an open box of gauze bandages sitting among other medical supplies.
The laundry worker, identified in the inspection report as Staff V, told inspectors the soiled linen sorting room was being used for central supply storage. Soiled linens were being sorted in the main laundry room instead of a separate area. The temperature logs, which are supposed to be recorded every shift according to Staff V, had a last entry dated March 24, three days before inspectors arrived.
The Director of Nursing, the infection preventionist, and the administrator all said the same thing when asked: none of it was acceptable. The administrator said soiled linens being sorted in the washing area, the temperature monitoring gap, and residents handling laundry themselves did not meet expectations. The infection preventionist, a registered nurse identified as Staff E, said residents should not have been going through the laundry at all.
What nobody explained was how long it had been happening.
The laundry problems were one of two infection control failures inspectors documented. The other involved a drug-resistant bacterial infection that the facility's own tracking system missed for more than two months.
On January 20, 2026, a laboratory test confirmed that Resident 110 had tested positive for Escherichia coli with an ESBL-producing organism, a type of multidrug-resistant bacteria that resists many common antibiotics. The lab result specified that contact precautions should be observed. But when inspectors reviewed the facility's infection control log for January, the organism wasn't listed. What the log showed instead was a January 30 entry for Resident 110 noting it was not a multidrug-resistant organism and did not require special infection control precautions.
That entry was wrong. The lab had said the opposite ten days earlier.
Staff E, the infection preventionist, told inspectors that January's log should have included the identified organism. She said she hadn't had access to hospital records and didn't know which organisms were present for Resident 110. The administrator said it was his expectation that the infection preventionist reviewed all infectious disease lab results to ensure appropriate precautions were in place.
Between the lab confirmation on January 20 and the inspection on March 27, more than two months passed. The inspection report does not say whether contact precautions were ever put in place for Resident 110, or what contact other residents or staff may have had in the interim.
ESBL-producing bacteria are a recognized concern in long-term care settings because they spread through contact and are difficult to treat when infections develop. The failure to flag the organism and log it correctly left the facility without its own record that anything required attention.
The inspection cited the facility for failing to ensure surveillance of communicable diseases was completed for January 2026, and for failing to handle and process soiled linens properly. The harm level was listed as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with many residents affected.
Inspectors noted the facility serves residents at 1649 East 72nd Street in Tacoma.
Resident 110's lab result sat in the electronic health record. The infection log said nothing was wrong. And down the hall, when someone's clothes went missing, the answer was to send them into the room where the dirty laundry was sorted.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Heartwood Extended Healthcare from 2026-03-30 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: June 18, 2026 · Our methodology
HEARTWOOD EXTENDED HEALTHCARE in TACOMA, WA was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 30, 2026.
That detail emerged during a March 27 inspection, when the facility's central supply worker confirmed it directly.
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.