Mountain Laurel Healthcare: Dining Room Closed - PA
Federal inspectors who arrived at the Clearfield facility in August found that the main dining room on the first floor had been closed since at least Monday, August 11, 2025, because the facility did not have enough nursing staff to keep it open. Residents who had eaten together in that room for months were sent back to their beds and bedside tables, and most of them were never told why.
At 12:35 p.m. on August 11, inspectors found Resident 46 eating lunch at her bedside table in her room. She told them the dining room had been closed since the previous week and that she preferred to eat there. She said she had no idea why it was shut.
Down the hall, Resident 69 was sitting on her bed, eating from a tray. She also preferred the dining room. She hadn't been told anything official, but she suspected it had to do with not having enough staff.
Resident 81, observed at 12:40 p.m., had always eaten in the main dining room. She told inspectors she hadn't been allowed to go in several days and that no one had given residents a reason.
The pattern continued. Resident 83, eating in her room at 12:49 p.m., preferred the dining room and hadn't been able to use it for days. Resident 95, also eating in her room, told inspectors she had been told the closure was due to not having enough nursing staff to safely open it. She was one of the few who received even that much of an explanation.
When inspectors spoke with a group of residents together on August 12, they said the same thing: they preferred to eat in the dining room for the socialization. The nursing staff had told them there weren't enough people working to keep it open.
Two nursing aides confirmed the situation when interviewed on August 13. The first said the main dining rooms on the first floor had not been opened since the previous week due to insufficient nursing staff. The second said they had been told the dining room would be closed and believed it was a staffing issue, since nursing staff are required to be present during meal service.
The Dietary Director confirmed it directly: the main dining room had been closed since Monday, August 11, because there had not been enough nursing staff to safely open it.
The Director of Nursing, interviewed on August 13, told inspectors she had no input regarding whether there was enough staff to provide showers to residents. The inspection report flags a staffing shortage severe enough to affect not just dining but basic personal care.
What the inspection captured is a facility that stopped providing a basic daily experience, communal meals, and left residents to figure out on their own why the room they gathered in every day had gone dark. Most of them had done nothing wrong, requested nothing unusual, and posed no clinical challenge. They just wanted to eat lunch with other people.
Resident 81 had always eaten in the dining room. By the time inspectors arrived, she had gone several days without being told when, or whether, that would change.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Mountain Laurel Healthcare and Rehabilitation Ctr from 2025-08-14 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 22, 2026 · Our methodology
MOUNTAIN LAUREL HEALTHCARE AND REHABILITATION CTR in CLEARFIELD, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 14, 2025.
Residents who had eaten together in that room for months were sent back to their beds and bedside tables, and most of them were never told why.
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.