F0584

E

Failure to Maintain Safe and Comfortable Room Temperatures

Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania Survey Completed on 02-11-2026

Penalty

No penalty information released

Summary

The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to maintain safe, comfortable room temperatures within its own policy range of 71°F to 81°F across three nursing units. The facility’s “Homelike Environment” policy, revised February 11, 2026, requires comfortable and safe temperatures within that range. During a tour of the units, multiple resident rooms were found below the policy minimum despite thermostats being set within the acceptable range. One room measured 69.6°F with large windows near the bed, another measured 66°F with the thermostat at 73°F, and additional rooms were recorded at 66.7°F, 62.9°F, 69.2°F, and 67.4°F, some with baseboard heat or PTAC units and one with a window air conditioning unit still installed.

Several residents reported being cold or experiencing fluctuating temperatures. One cognitively intact resident stated the room gets cold, especially at night. Another resident, who preferred a “middle” temperature and kept a window slightly open due to temperature fluctuations, reported that the room sometimes became too cold, particularly on weekends. A resident with a BIMS score of 12 stated she was cold at the time of observation, requested another blanket, and asked for the heat to be turned up; her daughter reported that on some days the resident’s arm felt cold to the touch. One resident with significant medical diagnoses, including chronic respiratory failure with hypoxia, acute respiratory failure, tachycardia, dysphagia, and convulsions, was in a room measured at 66.7°F and could not be interviewed due to cognitive status.

The deficiency was further supported by the lack of consistent air temperature monitoring and oversight. The Nursing Home Administrator and DON could not identify recent air temperature logs and confirmed there was no oversight of maintenance air temperature logs for several winter months. The maintenance director admitted that logs for November and December 2025 had been copied from 2024 and that actual air temperature monitoring only began in January after a complaint, with the electronic system set for checks only once a week. It was also noted that some thermostats on one wing were centrally located and accessible to visitors, prompting the purchase of locked covers, and that only the maintenance director had the key to adjust these thermostats, including during evenings and overnights, when he would have to be called in if residents were cold. These conditions occurred during a period that included multiple very cold days in January and February in the facility’s geographic area.