Reliable Health & Rehab at Lakewood: Laundry Cross-Contamination - GA
Clean sheets, towels, blankets, and washcloths were folded on a table directly beside machines whose doors stood open. A rack of personal resident clothing sat parked in front of the open door to the dirty linen room. Bags of unlabeled clothes sat on the floor next to the dirty area. To move soiled laundry to the washers, staff had to push the dirty barrels past the clean clothes on the racks.
Environmental staff members DD and EE, working in the laundry that morning, explained the logic: open doors, covered barrels, circulating air. They identified the unlabeled rack and bagged clothes as items sometimes distributed to residents in need. The rack of personal clothing in front of the dirty linen door, they said, belonged to residents whose clothes were delivered only at night, by a staff member who worked that shift.
The Environmental Services Director, interviewed an hour later, said the door to the dirty side should always be closed and that nothing should be placed on top of the dirty barrels.
The facility's own infection preventionist nurse said she confirmed there was a cross-contamination problem when inspectors showed her photographs. She had not been aware of the concern before that moment.
The administrator, interviewed that afternoon, said the residents' clothes should not have been stored there at all. Once clean, she said, clothes should be handed out immediately. She acknowledged that a negative outcome of the arrangement could be the spread of infection through the laundry.
The facility's written policies, reviewed as recently as January 2026, stated plainly that clean linen shall always be separated from soiled linen. At the time of the inspection, 94 residents lived at the facility.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Reliable Health & Rehab At Lakewood from 2026-04-30 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 6, 2026 · Our methodology
RELIABLE HEALTH & REHAB AT LAKEWOOD in ATLANTA, GA was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 30, 2026.
Clean sheets, towels, blankets, and washcloths were folded on a table directly beside machines whose doors stood open.
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.