Berkshire Rehab: Staff Dignity Violation, Termination - MA
The incident happened on the evening of January 24, 2026. Resident #1 approached the nurses' station and stood within the aide's personal space. The aide, identified in inspection records only as CNA #1, put her hand up and told the resident to move away.
The facility's Director of Nurses described the exchange as a failure to treat the resident with dignity and respect. CNA #1 was terminated on February 4, 2026, eleven days after the incident.
State surveyors who investigated the complaint tried to get CNA #1's account directly. She did not respond to telephone calls or a written letter from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health requesting an interview. Her version of events is not part of the record.
What the inspection report does contain is the aide's own written statement, submitted before her termination, describing what happened at the nurses' station that night. In it, she said she put her hand up and asked Resident #1 to move away "in a polite manner." The facility's investigation reached a different conclusion about how the interaction should be characterized.
Berkshire Rehabilitation & Skilled Care Center sits at 7 Sandisfield Road in Sandisfield, a small town in Berkshire County in western Massachusetts. The complaint inspection was one of the narrower reviews surveyors conduct, focused on the specific allegation rather than a full facility-wide assessment. Inspectors classified the harm level as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and noted that few residents were affected.
The deficiency cited in the inspection falls under the federal requirement that nursing home residents be treated with dignity, one of the foundational resident rights protections in federal nursing home law. A hand raised toward a resident who has approached a staff member, whatever the intent behind it, was enough for this facility's own leadership to conclude the line had been crossed.
The Director of Nurses confirmed all of this on the afternoon of May 27, 2026, during a 4:00 p.m. interview with the state surveyor. The DON said the facility conducted its own investigation, reached its own conclusion, and acted on it. The termination came roughly ten days after the incident.
There is no indication in the inspection record that Resident #1 was physically harmed. There is also no account from Resident #1 about what the encounter felt like, or why they had approached the nurses' station that evening.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Berkshire Rehabilitation & Skilled Care Center from 2026-05-27 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.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: August 11, 2026 · Our methodology
BERKSHIRE REHABILITATION & SKILLED CARE CENTER in SANDISFIELD, MA was cited for violations during a health inspection on May 27, 2026.
The incident happened on the evening of January 24, 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.