Orchard Gardens: Live Roaches Found in Kitchen - KS
That is what inspectors found on September 3 at Orchard Gardens, a 70-bed nursing home in Wichita. The federal inspection, triggered by a complaint, documented live roaches in multiple stages of life moving through the facility's one kitchen, alongside dead ones scattered across the floor. The residents eating food prepared in that kitchen had no idea.
Dietary Staff CC, a kitchen worker, told inspectors she had seen the roaches herself and had reported the problem to the Certified Dietary Manager, identified in the inspection report as Dietary Staff BB. She said someone came in weekly to try to control them. The lids were off two garbage cans sitting in the kitchen, CC explained, because it was easier to throw things away that way.
The Certified Dietary Manager confirmed everything. Roaches in the dry storage room. Roaches behind the fridges and freezers. Roaches under the counters and behind the doors. BB told inspectors the facility had a pest control service that came monthly, that the next visit was due sometime in September, and that the person responsible for calling the pest control company was an administrator identified as Administrative Staff A. BB also said the kitchen staff had been dealing with the roaches for about six months.
Six months is a long time to prepare meals for elderly residents in a roach-infested kitchen.
When inspectors spoke with Administrative Staff A later that afternoon, he said he expected the kitchen to be pest-free and that the facility had tried to accomplish that. He confirmed the roaches were there.
The facility's own pest control policy, dated June 2025, three months before the inspection, states that the facility shall maintain an effective pest control program and that the building is to be kept free of insects and rodents. The policy was current. The roaches were also current.
What the inspection report describes is not a kitchen that had a roach problem discovered and addressed. It is a kitchen where workers had watched an infestation grow for half a year, reported it internally, and continued preparing and serving food. The weekly visits from whoever was coming to treat the problem had not worked. The monthly pest control service had not resolved it either. By the morning of September 3, inspectors could observe roaches in multiple stages of life, meaning the population was reproducing inside the facility.
Roaches carry bacteria including salmonella and E. coli. They move between sewage, waste, and food surfaces. An infestation that spans six months and reaches behind refrigerators, under meal preparation counters, and into dry food storage represents sustained exposure risk for anyone eating food prepared in that space. Orchard Gardens serves 70 residents.
The inspection cited the violation at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, meaning no resident had yet been documented as sick from food prepared in the kitchen. That is not the same as saying the kitchen was safe.
The administrator's statement — that he expected the kitchen to be pest-free — landed six months after the problem began and on the same afternoon inspectors were documenting what they had seen that morning. The kitchen staff already knew. The dietary manager already knew. The pest control visits kept coming. The roaches kept coming too.
What nobody did, for six months, was stop serving food out of that kitchen while the problem was solved.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Orchard Gardens from 2025-09-03 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
ORCHARD GARDENS in WICHITA, KS was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 3, 2025.
That is what inspectors found on September 3 at Orchard Gardens, a 70-bed nursing home in Wichita.
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.