The Lakeland Center: Call Light System Failures - MI
That observation, recorded by a federal inspector on the morning of August 19, was not an isolated test. In the room next door, a licensed practical nurse pressed the call bell herself, multiple times, and watched the same thing happen. The light outside Room 204 did not respond. The LPN confirmed it: the call bell was not working.
Two rooms. Two broken systems. And according to every manager interviewed that day, nobody had told them.
The inspection was triggered by a complaint filed with the state, alleging the facility's call light system was broken. Inspectors arrived and began checking. By 10 in the morning, they had already documented failures in Rooms 204 and 205.
The Nurse Unit Manager, interviewed at 10:33 AM, explained how the system is supposed to work: staff get alerted by a beep at the nurse's station, and if they aren't near the station, they can see which rooms need help by the lights outside the doors. Those lights, in at least two rooms, were not working. The Nurse Unit Manager said she had not been informed of any problems with the call light system.
The Director of Nursing, interviewed alongside the Nurse Unit Manager just before noon, offered a different piece of the picture. There had been an issue with the call light system, she said, but that was back in July. She believed it had been fixed the same day it was identified. Since then, she said, she had heard nothing.
The gap between July and August 19 went unexplained.
The administrator, reached by inspectors at 1:04 in the afternoon, said they had been unaware of any concerns. After learning what inspectors had found, the administrator said they were directing the maintenance department to audit call bells throughout the entire facility. No documentation of that audit, and no further explanation, was provided before the inspection closed.
Call lights are among the most basic tools a nursing home resident has. For someone who cannot get out of bed, cannot walk to the door, cannot raise their voice loud enough to be heard in a hallway, the call bell is the mechanism between needing help and getting it. A resident in Room 205 pressed theirs three times on the morning of August 19 while an inspector watched. The light outside the door did not respond to any of them.
The inspection report does not document how long the lights in those two rooms had been out. It does not say whether residents in either room had pressed their bells before that morning and waited. It does not say whether anyone came.
What it does say is that when the Nurse Unit Manager was asked about the system, she described a setup that depends on those lights working. Staff who aren't near the nurse's station rely on the indicators outside doors to know who needs them. In Rooms 204 and 205, that system had failed, and the people responsible for the floor said they did not know.
The Director of Nursing believed a July repair had held. The Nurse Unit Manager had heard no complaints. The administrator learned about the problem from a federal inspector.
The resident in Room 205 pressed the button three times. The light never came on.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for The Lakeland Center from 2025-08-19 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
The Lakeland Center in Southfield, MI was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 19, 2025.
That observation, recorded by a federal inspector on the morning of August 19, was not an isolated test.
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.