Scenic Hills at the Monastery: Hand Hygiene Failure - IN
The finding was straightforward. During morning care, a staff member helped a resident with toileting, removed a soiled incontinence pad, and did not perform hand hygiene afterward. Inspectors documented the lapse at 8:43 a.m.
The facility's own written policy, last revised in February 2017, required staff to use hand hygiene during toileting, before and after physical contact with residents, and after removing gloves worn during direct contact with excretions. The administrator handed that policy to inspectors the same morning the violation was observed. The policy said one thing. What happened in the resident's room said another.
Inspectors cited the facility under two provisions of the Indiana Administrative Code governing infection control in long-term care settings. The level of harm was classified as minimal harm or potential for actual harm. A few residents were identified as affected.
That classification, minimal harm, can obscure what the underlying act actually represents. Hands that have handled fecal matter and are not washed carry bacteria. In a nursing home, where residents are elderly, often immunocompromised, and share caregivers across a wing, those bacteria move. Infections that would be minor inconveniences for a healthy adult can become hospitalizations, or worse, for a frail resident in a long-term care bed.
The gap between a posted policy and what staff actually do during early morning care rounds is one of the most persistent problems in nursing home infection control. Facilities write the policy. They train on the policy. Then, at 8:43 on a Tuesday morning, someone skips a step because they are busy, or tired, or because nobody is watching. Except, on this morning, somebody was.
Scenic Hills at the Monastery sits on Sunrise Drive in Ferdinand, a small town in southwestern Indiana known for the Benedictine monastery that anchors the community. The facility serves long-term residents who depend on staff for the most basic functions of daily life, including toileting and incontinence care. Those residents cannot wash their own hands after a staff member skips the step. They cannot move to a different room or a different caregiver. They absorb whatever risks the people caring for them introduce.
The inspection report does not name the worker involved, does not say whether the lapse was isolated or part of a pattern, and does not describe what, if any, immediate corrective action the facility took on the floor that morning. What it records is the moment itself: a staff member, a resident, a soiled pad, and no handwashing.
The facility's policy has been on the books since 2017. Nine years is a long time for a written standard to exist without the practice fully matching it.
For information on the facility's plan to correct the deficiency, CMS directs the public to contact the nursing home or the Indiana State Department of Health directly. The resident who was being cared for that morning remains at the facility.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Scenic Hills At the Monastery from 2026-05-22 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.
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Last verified: October 31, 2026 · Our methodology
SCENIC HILLS AT THE MONASTERY in FERDINAND, IN was cited for violations during a health inspection on May 22, 2026.
The finding was straightforward.
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.