Alaska Gardens Health and Rehab: Screening Failures - WA
One of those deficiencies cuts to something fundamental: whether residents with mental illness or intellectual disabilities were properly identified before or shortly after admission. The screening process exists so that people with those conditions get appropriate care, placed in settings equipped to handle their needs. Alaska Gardens, inspectors found, wasn't doing it right.
The violation falls under what's known as PASARR, a federal pre-admission screening requirement for Medicaid-certified nursing homes. The process is supposed to catch residents who have mental disorders or intellectual disabilities and ensure the facility can actually meet their needs, or redirect them to a more appropriate setting if it cannot. When a nursing home skips or botches those screenings, it doesn't just create a paperwork problem. It means residents may be living in a facility that has no documented understanding of their psychiatric or cognitive needs, and no plan built around those needs.
Inspectors classified the violation as a pattern, meaning this wasn't a single missed screening for a single resident. It happened across multiple cases. They rated the severity at level E on the federal deficiency scale, meaning no actual harm was documented but the potential for more than minimal harm existed across the pattern of failures.
That distinction matters less than it might sound. "Potential for more than minimal harm" is the language regulators use when the conditions are wrong enough that something bad is reasonably likely to follow, even if they can't point to a resident who was hurt yet. A person with an unrecognized mental disorder living in a facility that doesn't know about it, hasn't planned for it, and hasn't secured the right level of psychiatric support is not in a safe situation. The harm just hasn't been documented.
Alaska Gardens has not submitted a plan of correction.
That's the detail that sits at the center of this inspection. Twelve deficiencies, and the facility has offered no written response describing what went wrong, who is responsible for fixing it, how they intend to fix it, or when. A plan of correction isn't optional paperwork. It's the mechanism by which a facility tells regulators and the public that it understands what happened and intends to change it. The absence of one here means residents, families, and anyone considering placing a loved one at Alaska Gardens have no information about what the facility plans to do differently.
The PASARR deficiency was not the only problem inspectors found during the May 7 inspection. Eleven other deficiencies were cited across what CMS categorizes as resident assessment and care planning, among other areas. The full scope of those violations is not detailed here, but the number alone, 12 deficiencies in a single standard inspection, describes a facility with systemic problems across multiple areas of care.
Standard inspections are not surprise visits designed to catch facilities at their worst. They are scheduled, routine surveys that facilities know are coming. Twelve deficiencies under those conditions is a significant outcome.
What the inspection doesn't answer is how long the PASARR screenings had been failing, how many residents were affected, and what happened to the people who moved into Alaska Gardens without ever receiving a proper evaluation of their mental health or cognitive status. Those residents may have conditions their care plans never addressed. They may have needed services the facility never arranged. They may have needed a different facility entirely.
The inspection report documents the finding and records that no correction plan exists. It does not record what any of those residents' days look like now, or whether anyone at Alaska Gardens has told them what was missed.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Alaska Gardens Health and Rehabilitation from 2026-05-07 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: July 16, 2026 · Our methodology
Alaska Gardens Health and Rehabilitation in TACOMA, WA was cited for violations during a health inspection on May 7, 2026.
The screening process exists so that people with those conditions get appropriate care, placed in settings equipped to handle their needs.
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.