Rensselaer Care Center

In the surveyor’s words

From the most serious findings on record at Rensselaer Care Center, in the surveyor’s own words.

• Immediate jeopardy, patternF805May 6, 2024

  Based on observation, record review and interview, the facility failed to ensure ground meat was provided in accordance with the physician orders and failed to ensure specialized dietary instructions were provided to nursing staff for 6 of 6 residents on a memory care unit reviewed for a mechanically altered with ground meat diet. (Residents B, G, H, J, K, and L) This deficient practice resulted in a cognitively impaired resident with a history of food stuffing, ingesting the regular meat, the resident's airway becoming blocked, and the resident expired. […]

• Immediate jeopardy, isolatedF689May 6, 2024

  Based on record review and interview, the facility failed to ensure adequate supervision was provided to prevent a cognitively-impaired resident on the Memory Care Unit with a history of food stuffing from ingesting and aspirating a large amount of unchewed food, for 1 of 3 residents reviewed for dining room supervision. This deficient practice resulted in the death of Resident B. The immediate jeopardy began on [DATE] when a cognitively impaired resident on the memory care unit with a history of stuffing food into her mouth and swallowing without chewing, was found unresponsive with sausage in her mouth and airway after the dinner meal. The resident had a care plan to be supervised during meals. […]

• No harm, potential for more than minimal, widespreadF812May 6, 2026

  Based on observation, record review and interview, the facility failed to ensure a sanitary kitchen was maintained related to proper chemical level in the dishwasher for 1 of 1 kitchen. (Main Kitchen) This had the potential to affect the 89 residents who received food from the kitchen.Finding includes:On 4/29/26 at 9:59 a.m., the Initial Kitchen tour was completed with the Dietary Manager (DM). The DM indicated the dishwasher was a chemical dishwasher and the chemical solution was tested every shift. She obtained a test strip and checked the chemical solution following the wash cycle. The test strip registered 0 parts per million (PPM). The DM indicated the chemical reading should be 100 PPM. […]

• No harm, potential for more than minimal, widespreadF887May 6, 2026

  Based on record review and interview, the facility failed to provide education of the benefits and risks of the COVID-19 vaccine and failed to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to the employees of the facility, which had the potential to affect all the residents who reside in the facility.Finding includes:During an interview on 4/30/26 at 2:43 p.m., the Minimum Data Set Assessment (MDS) Nurse indicated COVID-19 education and vaccination had not been offered to her.During an interview on 5/1/26 at 1:59 p.m., the Nurse Consultant indicated the COVID-19 education and vaccine had not been offered to the staff.During an interview on 5/6/26 at 9:50 a.m., the Administration indicated there were 99 staff members including therapy who were employed by the facility.A facility COVID-19 policy, dated… […]

• No harm, potential for more than minimal, widespreadF812Jul 16, 2025

  Based on observation, record review, and interview, the facility failed to serve, store, and prepare food under sanitary conditions, related to opened food stored more than 72 hours, dirt/debris/food on the floors of the walk in cooler, dried storage area, and food preparation area, dirty shelves, food stored without opening dates and in dirty containers, dented cans, opened bags of cereal not re-sealed, and a staff member with uncovered open areas on his arm, for 1 of 1 kitchen.(Main Kitchen) This had the potential to affect 85 of 86 residents who reside in the facility.Findings include: The following was observed in the kitchen on 7/14/25 at 5:40 a.m. through 6:20 a.m.: 1.Dietary Aide 4 was emptying out several containers of food into the trash bin. […]