Courtyard of Natchitoches: Medical Privacy Breach - LA
Nobody came.
The inspector stood with the cart and waited. Nearly two minutes passed before a licensed practical nurse approached. The nurse, identified in inspection records as S7LPN, acknowledged she had left the cart there herself, with the electronic medical record screen open and the resident's protected health information in plain view on the screen.
"She confirmed she did not ensure the privacy and confidentiality of Resident R5's PHI, but should have," inspectors wrote in their September 2025 report.
The resident at the center of the violation is identified only as Resident R5. The inspection report does not describe what specific information was visible on the screen, but electronic medical records in nursing home settings routinely contain diagnoses, medication lists, treatment histories, physician notes, and other sensitive clinical details.
The director of nursing, identified as S2DON, told inspectors later that morning that staff were expected to lock computer screens whenever they stepped away from them. That is the standard the facility had set for itself. It was not followed.
The facility's own HIPAA policy, last revised in June 2016, states plainly that all workforce members are required to prevent unauthorized disclosure of protected health information and that leaving such information in public areas constitutes a violation. The policy was on the books. The cart was in the hallway.
Inspectors cited the violation as causing minimal harm, the lowest level on the federal harm scale, and noted the potential for actual harm. The inspection was triggered by a complaint, not a routine survey cycle.
What the report does not resolve is how long the cart had been sitting there before the inspector arrived, or whether anyone other than the inspector had passed by and seen the screen. Hall B is a shared space. The cart was unattended long enough that a surveyor could approach it, assess what was on the screen, identify the resident whose record was open, and remain standing there for nearly two minutes before a staff member appeared.
The facility's plan of correction was not included in the publicly available inspection documents. For nursing homes, inspection findings and correction plans become public fourteen days after they are made available to the facility.
Courtyard of Natchitoches is located at 708 Keyser Avenue in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The inspection was completed September 17, 2025.
The nurse who left the cart did not dispute what happened. She said she left it. She said the screen was open. She said she should not have done it. The director of nursing confirmed the policy she had not followed.
Resident R5's name does not appear anywhere in the public record. What is known is that on a Tuesday morning in September, that resident's private medical information was visible on a screen in a hallway, and the person responsible for protecting it was somewhere else.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Courtyard of Natchitoches from 2025-09-17 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 23, 2026 · Our methodology
COURTYARD OF NATCHITOCHES in NATCHITOCHES, LA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 17, 2025.
The inspector stood with the cart and waited.
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.