F0584

E

Unsealed PTAC Units Allow Cold Air and Moisture Into Resident Rooms

Delaware, Ohio Survey Completed on 02-09-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to provide a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment by not maintaining properly sealed Packaged Terminal Air Conditioner (PTAC) units in multiple resident rooms and a private dining room during very cold weather. A tour showed that each resident room and the private dining room had a PTAC unit installed under the window, and in several locations there was approximately a 1/4 inch gap between the unit and the wall, open to the outside, allowing cold air to enter. This condition was observed in the resident private dining room and in the rooms of six residents, where the units did not span the wall opening completely.

In one room shared by two residents, the PTAC unit was not sealed around the entire unit, and staff confirmed that cold air was coming through the gap. On the right side of that unit, wallpaper was peeling from the wall from the top of the unit to the baseboard, exposing a dark substance on the wall and the back of the wallpaper. A white bath towel was rolled up under the PTAC unit. One of the residents in that room stated she could feel the cold air and explained that the towel was used to soak up water coming in from outside elements. She reported having notified administration several times about the problem without results. In another resident room, the exposed wood around the PTAC unit appeared wet and black, as if damaged, and staff verified these observations.

Additional observations in other resident rooms showed similar 1/4 inch openings between the PTAC units and the walls, with cold air entering and wallpaper beginning to peel near the baseboard. One resident associated the gap with having bugs in the room. The Maintenance Supervisor stated he was responsible for checking PTAC units and sealing areas where cold air entered with silicone, but he reported being unaware of cold air coming through the units until the survey. He acknowledged that the problem with one room’s PTAC unit had been reported to him in the fall of 2025 and that correcting the issue would require removing and reinstalling the unit from the wall and outside. The Administrator confirmed there were no Maintenance Work Order Request Forms for the PTAC units or for wallpaper separating from the walls, despite the facility’s policy requiring all maintenance requests to be documented on a work order form for tracking and timely resolution.