Slovene Home for the Aged: Cold Food Complaints - OH
Federal inspectors who arrived at the facility on August 18 found out she was right.
At 8:23 that morning, kitchen staff placed a test tray on a food cart and wheeled it to the North unit. The tray arrived at 8:26. Then it sat on the cart, in plain view of the surveyor, while staff distributed breakfast to residents room by room. At 8:42, Kitchen Manager #354 pulled the tray and checked the food with a facility thermometer. The waffle read 92.4 degrees Fahrenheit. The ham read 92.4 degrees. The cream of wheat had held better, at 135.6 degrees, but the kitchen manager confirmed on the spot that the ham and waffle were not hot and not served at appetizing temperatures.
Nineteen minutes had passed since the tray left the kitchen. That was all it took.
The inspection was triggered by a complaint. By the time surveyors finished their review, the deficiency was listed as affecting up to 189 of the facility's 196 residents — everyone except seven who were not eating by mouth at all.
One resident, identified in the report as Resident #121, told inspectors her breakfast that morning had been delicious. The reason: staff had reheated it on the floor before she ate it. She didn't frame this as a complaint. It had simply become the workaround.
Another resident, Resident #127, said food was usually cold when delivered to her room. She had figured out her own solution too — eating in the dining room instead, where the food wasn't cold.
The facility's own records told the same story. A review of the Resident Concern Log from January through August 2025 turned up cold food complaints logged on January 23 and again on June 24. The complaint that triggered this inspection was filed sometime before surveyors arrived on August 18. The log entries and the complaint together suggest the problem had been known, documented, and unresolved for at least seven months.
CNA #316, the nursing assistant who described the constant complaints, was interviewed at 11:11 in the morning on August 18, the same day inspectors were watching the test tray sit on the cart. She did not appear to be describing something unusual.
The deficiency was cited at the lowest level of harm — minimal harm or potential for actual harm. That classification reflects the regulatory framework inspectors use, not necessarily what it means to be handed a cold waffle at breakfast when you cannot get up and reheat it yourself, or to rely on a staff member taking an extra step that is nowhere in the job description.
Slovene Home for the Aged is a 196-bed facility. The inspection was a complaint survey, not a standard annual review, meaning someone — a resident, a family member, or a staff member — had contacted the state before inspectors ever walked through the door.
The kitchen manager who confirmed the temperatures did not dispute what the thermometer showed. The food was cold. The cart had taken three minutes to travel from kitchen to unit. The tray had then waited sixteen more minutes while other residents were served. By the time the last resident on that cart received breakfast, the food had been sitting for the better part of twenty minutes since it left the kitchen.
Resident #127 had already worked out that the dining room was better. Resident #121 was eating reheated food and calling it delicious, because at least it was warm.
Neither of them should have had to figure that out on their own.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Slovene Home For the Aged from 2025-08-20 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
SLOVENE HOME FOR THE AGED in CLEVELAND, OH was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 20, 2025.
Federal inspectors who arrived at the facility on August 18 found out she was right.
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.