Oaks at Bethesda: Expired Medications Found on Carts - OH
The insulin, drawn from a vial opened on April 11, carried a yellow sticker warning it expires 28 days after opening. That put the expiration date at May 9. When inspectors reviewed the cart on the 200 hall at 4:40 in the afternoon, the vial was still there. Registered Nurse #128 confirmed on the spot that the medication was expired.
The resident it belonged to, identified in the inspection report as Resident #51, had been admitted to the facility in October 2023 with Type II diabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease progressing through stages one to four. The physician had ordered the insulin on May 12 and discontinued it five days later. The order was gone. The expired vial was not.
Two other residents had medication problems discovered during the same cart review.
Resident #48, admitted May 8 after a colostomy and a bout of sepsis, also carried diagnoses of COPD and asthma. A physician had ordered Ipratropium Bromide/Albuterol Sulfate twice daily for the COPD, and records showed the resident received it every day from admission through May 27. The box on the cart had a yellow sticker with a blank line for the open date and a printed instruction to discard after 14 days. The line was empty. RN #140, who was present during the cart review on the 100 hall at 4:56 that afternoon, confirmed no open date had been recorded. Without that date, there was no way to know whether the medication was still within its safe use window.
Resident #71 was admitted May 15, also with COPD and diabetes. A physician ordered Levalbuterol aerosol solution for breathing as needed, and a second order ran from May 19 through May 21 for wheezing episodes three times a day. The box on the 200 hall cart, reviewed at the same 4:40 walkthrough, had the same problem as Resident #48's medication: a yellow sticker with a blank where the open date should have been, and a discard instruction, this one calling for disposal after seven days. RN #128 confirmed the medication had not been labeled.
Three residents. Three medication storage failures. All found within 16 minutes of each other on the same afternoon.
The facility's own written policy on medication storage states that outdated or otherwise unusable medications must be immediately pulled from active inventory and moved to a separate area to prevent accidental use. The expired insulin was not pulled. The undated respiratory medications could not be evaluated for expiration at all, because the dates that would have made that determination possible were never written down.
The yellow stickers were already on the packaging. The instruction to record an open date was already printed on each one. The step that was skipped was the act of picking up a pen.
For Resident #51, the insulin the expired vial once contained had already been discontinued by the prescribing physician before it expired. Whether the resident received any doses from that vial after May 9 is not addressed in the inspection report. What is clear is that a medication past its labeled safe use date remained in active inventory, on an active medication cart, available for use.
Oaks at Bethesda is a 49-bed facility on Maple Avenue in Zanesville. The inspection was completed May 28, 2026. Inspectors rated the harm level for this deficiency as minimal harm or potential for actual harm.
The expired vial of insulin had been on that cart for at least 18 days before anyone removed it.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Oaks At Bethesda The from 2026-05-28 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 21, 2026 · Our methodology
OAKS AT BETHESDA THE in ZANESVILLE, OH was cited for violations during a health inspection on May 28, 2026.
The insulin, drawn from a vial opened on April 11, carried a yellow sticker warning it expires 28 days after opening.
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.