Aberdeen Health and Rehab: Call Light Failures Leave Residents Stranded - SD
"Maybe they do not take care of me because they do not like me," she told a federal surveyor who visited her room on the morning of June 2. "I am hard work."
The woman, identified in inspection records as Resident 34, had a perfect score on a standard cognition test administered the month before. She knew exactly what was happening to her. Her call light had been disconnected from the wall extender, so when she pressed it, nothing registered at the nurses' station. Staff had no idea she was waiting.
When the surveyor walked to the nurses' station and told a registered nurse and the assistant director of nursing what Resident 34 had said, neither of them had noticed any call lights on. The nurse went to check. The cord had simply come loose from the wall connector. That was why it never lit up.
The next morning, the assistant director of nursing went into Resident 34's room and turned the call light on herself. It switched back off on its own. She said the light "does that sometimes" and that she would notify maintenance.
Resident 34 was not the only one.
Resident 73, also cognitively intact with a perfect score on the same assessment, told the surveyor that afternoon that her call light had been unplugged from the wall more than once. Her solution, when it happened, was to yell across the hallway to a friend who lived in the room opposite hers and ask him to press his call light instead, so that staff would come.
At the Resident Council meeting on June 4, residents reported that Resident 41's call light had stopped working numerous times as well. Her cognition assessment score, taken in late April, was also intact.
All three residents whose call lights were examined during the inspection had non-functioning equipment. All three were cognitively intact adults who understood their situation and had found workarounds, or simply waited.
A registered nurse offered an explanation during an interview on June 3: call lights sometimes get hooked under a resident's bed and pulled out of the connector. When that happens, the light does not work. It was described as a known, recurring problem.
The director of nursing told the surveyor on June 4 that she expected call lights to always be in working order. She said that on most days, a maintenance staff member and the facility's MDS coordinator had already repaired or replaced non-working call lights before leadership arrived at 8 a.m. The implication was that the system was being managed. The inspection found three residents for whom it had not been.
When surveyors asked for the facility's call light policy, Aberdeen Health and Rehab did not have one.
The inspection was conducted June 2 through June 4, 2026, and the violation was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm. The finding covered three of the three sampled residents whose call lights were reviewed.
What the records do not show is how many times Resident 34 lay waiting before a surveyor happened to visit her room, or how many times Resident 73 shouted across the hallway before her neighbor heard her.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Aberdeen Health and Rehab from 2026-06-04 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 19, 2026 · Our methodology
ABERDEEN HEALTH AND REHAB in ABERDEEN, SD was cited for violations during a health inspection on June 4, 2026.
"Maybe they do not take care of me because they do not like me," she told a federal surveyor who visited her room on the morning of June 2.
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.