Fairlane Gardens Reading: Migraine Meds Delayed 12 Days - PA
The resident, identified in inspection records only as Resident 1, came to the facility with a list of serious diagnoses: chronic respiratory failure, anxiety, chronic pain, and migraines. She was alert and oriented. Her care plan flagged chronic pain as a problem area and called for staff to give her analgesic medications as her physician ordered.
On April 29, 2026, a physician ordered Ubrelvy, a migraine pain reliever, to be given every two hours as needed for headaches. That order sat unfilled for more than a week.
Nobody noticed until May 7, when a nurse finally called the pharmacy to ask about it. The pharmacy said the medication hadn't been delivered since the resident's admission and promised it would go out in the next scheduled delivery.
The next day, May 8, a physician added a second medication to the resident's orders: fioricet, used for tension headaches, to be given every four hours as needed. Two days passed. On May 10, a nurse called the pharmacy again, this time to check on both prescriptions. What the pharmacy said next made the delay worse: they had never received a prescription for the fioricet at all. Because fioricet is a controlled substance, the pharmacy could not fill it without a signed prescription from the physician in hand. No one had delivered one.
The resident did not receive either medication until May 11, when the pharmacy finally delivered both to the facility.
Inspectors interviewed the resident on May 27. She told them she had always taken Ubrelvy for her migraines. The inspection record does not document what those 12 days without it were like for her, but her care plan had identified pain management as a central concern from the start.
The Director of Nursing, interviewed the same afternoon, confirmed the medications had not been administered before May 11 because they had not been available from the pharmacy.
The facility's own policy on medication ordering, last reviewed just weeks before the inspection on May 5, 2026, stated that medications were to be received from the dispensing pharmacy on a timely basis, that new medications were to be ordered promptly, and that delivery was required so that administration was not delayed. For controlled substances, it specified that original prescriptions were to be handed to pharmacy delivery personnel at the time of delivery.
None of that happened here. The Ubrelvy order went untracked for eight days before anyone called to ask where it was. The fioricet prescription was never sent to the pharmacy at all. Two calls over two days eventually produced results, but only after the resident had gone nearly two weeks without medications her physician had determined she needed.
Inspectors cited the deficiency under Pennsylvania nursing services regulations and rated the level of harm as minimal harm or potential for actual harm. The violation affected one of six residents whose records were reviewed during the complaint inspection.
The gap between a physician's order and a patient actually receiving the medication it describes is supposed to be measured in hours, not days. For a resident whose migraines were serious enough to warrant two separate prescriptions within nine days, those 12 days represent something the inspection record leaves largely in silence, noted only in a single line: she had always taken Ubrelvy for relief.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Fairlane Gardens Nursing and Rehab At Reading 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 12, 2026 · Our methodology
Fairlane Gardens Nursing and Rehab at Reading in READING, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on May 27, 2026.
Her care plan flagged chronic pain as a problem area and called for staff to give her analgesic medications as her physician ordered.
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.