Walworth County Care Center: Hand Hygiene Failures - SD
Inspectors watched it happen on April 29, 2026. Housekeeper Q finished cleaning a bathroom, removed her gloves, and discarded them. She did not wash her hands. She swept the floor, grabbed the door handle, swept behind the door, mopped, pulled the mop out with bare hands, and touched the door handle again on her way out. Then she put on a new pair of gloves, without washing her hands first, and moved on to another resident's room.
When inspectors interviewed her the following morning, she confirmed she knew exactly what she was supposed to do. She said she was required to wash her hands after cleaning a bathroom, after mopping, and between rooms. She said she understood the reason was to prevent the spread of germs. She confirmed she had not done any of it.
The director of food and nutrition and housekeeping, interviewed later that afternoon, laid out the same requirements and said that skipping hand hygiene increased the risk of spreading infection throughout the facility.
The facility's own handwashing policy, its room-cleaning procedures, and its enhanced barrier precautions policy all required hand hygiene at the moments Housekeeper Q skipped it. The enhanced barrier policy was revised as recently as December 2024, drafted specifically to prevent the spread of multi-drug resistant organisms during high-contact care activities.
CMS rated the violation at minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with some residents affected.
The gap between what the policy said and what inspectors saw was not a matter of interpretation. The housekeeper knew the rules. She walked through a resident's room, touched every surface on the way out, and moved to the next one.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Walworth County Care Center, Inc 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
Walworth County Care Center, Inc in SELBY, SD was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 30, 2026.
Inspectors watched it happen on April 29, 2026.
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.