Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals
‘Help me’: Iowa nursing home that’s among the nation’s worst faces no state fines
A Sioux City nursing home where workers have allegedly ignored residents’ cries for help and waited 40 minutes to perform CPR on a resident with no pulse has been added to the list of the nation’s worst nursing homes. Although the owners of Countryside Healthcare Center of Sioux City are being cited for numerous, serious […]
Restaurant inspection update: Gnats in whiskey, ham in a bucket and suspicious ‘poultry activity’
In the past month, state and county food inspectors have cited Iowa restaurants and grocery stores for hundreds of food-safety violations, including week-old scrambled eggs, gnats floating in a whiskey bottle, a carton of ice cream submerged in a pan of raw chicken, and four-month-old sliced ham found stored in a bucket. Last week, the […]
Nurse tells court Des Moines home for the elderly needs no license
A central Iowa nurse has acknowledged in court she is exploiting a potential gap in state regulation by using two separate corporations to provide housing and health care services for the elderly in an unlicensed setting. City and state officials, meanwhile, say jurisdictional issues have prevented them from sending fire-safety inspectors into the Des Moines […]
Iowa nurse accused of running an illegal, unlicensed assisted living facility
A central Iowa nurse is accused of attempting to exploit a potential gap in state regulation by running an illegal, unlicensed care facility in Des Moines. The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals and the City of Des Moines are suing Sutton Senior Home, a corporation run by Anne Porter, a registered nurse from Ankeny. […]
Iowa restaurants cited for slime, outdated food and unsanitary equipment
In recent weeks, state and county food inspectors have cited Iowa restaurants and grocery stores for hundreds of food-safety violations, including long-outdated food, unsanitary kitchen equipment and failure to employ a certified food protection manager. One Iowa restaurant had converted five-gallon chemical detergent buckets into food-storage containers they were using inside the kitchen’s walk-in cooler. […]
Suspected hospice whistleblower hit with retaliation after a state inspection, judge finds
An Iowa hospice company retaliated against an alleged whistleblower suspected of reporting patient-care concerns to state regulators, a judge has ruled. According to state records, Judith Belcher had worked for Heartland Hospice Services of Davenport as a full-time medical social worker for four years before her termination in December 2020. At times, Belcher was providing […]
Judge finds nursing home resident was illegally dumped in hospital E.R.
The agency that oversees nursing homes in Iowa has reversed a judge’s finding that an Iowa nursing home was unjustified in evicting a resident by dumping the man at a hospital and leaving him homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Inspections and Appeals found, however, the eviction was carried out without adequate notice. […]
State agencies keep two sets of inspectors’ reports — one public, one confidential
Last September, a state restaurant inspector named Samuel Pang responded to a complaint about Kelly’s Little Nipper, a bar and grill on Des Moines’ Grand Avenue that was allegedly violating the governor’s order on COVID-19 mitigation. At the time, the order prohibited establishments from serving alcohol to people not eating food and from allowing patrons […]
Black grime, pink slime and cockroaches: A look at Iowa’s latest restaurant inspections
In recent weeks, state and county food inspectors have cited Iowa restaurants and grocery stores for hundreds of food-safety violations, including cockroaches in sushi-preparation areas, long-outdated food, and kitchen equipment caked with black grime and pink slime. The findings are reported by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, which handles food-establishment inspections at the […]
Another COVID-19 patient dies at troubled western Iowa nursing home
An Iowa nursing home that was the site of a coronavirus outbreak and at least seven deaths is facing another round of sanctions by state inspectors due to a resident death. The Oakland Manor nursing home in Pottawattamie County has been the site of at least 51 COVID-19 infections and seven resident deaths. State inspectors […]
State inspectors find no violations in Iowa nursing homes with major outbreaks
With COVID-19 outbreaks growing in Iowa’s nursing homes, state inspectors report finding no infection-control violations in many of the facilities with the biggest current, active outbreaks. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 141 current, active outbreaks in Iowa nursing homes, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. There are 5,725 infections associated with those outbreaks. […]
Reynolds ‘pleased’ with slower rate of infection, calls on Congress to ‘do their job’
Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she is “pleased” by the latest statistics on COVID-19 infections, which she said indicate slow but steady signs of improvement. The governor’s comments, made at a press conference on Tuesday, came on the same day Iowa reported 1,944 new cases of the virus and 27 additional deaths. The governor noted […]