Kansas Soldiers Home
200 Custer, Unit 98, Fort Dodge, KS 67801 · Ford County · 56 certified beds · avg 47 residents/day · certified since Sep 17, 2009
What health inspectors found (on-site government inspections — the most independent evidence available)
Health inspection rating: ★★☆☆☆2/5 · CMS overall rating: 3/5
The health inspection star above is graded on a curve within each state — a set share of each state's facilities gets each star level — so a facility can have few citations and still rate 2–3 stars if others in its state did even better. The overall rating combines that inspection score with staffing and self-reported quality measures.
Most serious findings (actual harm or immediate jeopardy)
▲ Actual harm, one-off · Aug 7, 2025 · F-0686
The facility did not provide proper care for pressure ulcers (bedsores) or did not do enough to prevent new ones from forming. Bedsores develop when residents stay in one position too long without help moving.
Why it matters: Bedsores are painful, can become deeply infected, and in serious cases can be life-threatening.
Severity (G): One or a few residents were actually harmed — physically or emotionally — though not put in immediate danger of serious injury or death.
Corrected: Aug 29, 2025 (Deficient, Provider has date of correction)
All citations in the current public record (25)
CMS publishes roughly the last three inspection cycles plus recent complaint investigations. Older surveys drop out of the record as new ones are completed.
| Date | Severity | What the facility was cited for |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 7, 2025 | ▲ G · Actual harm, one-off | The facility did not provide proper care for pressure ulcers (bedsores) or did not do enough to prevent new ones from forming. Bedsores develop when residents stay in one position too long without help moving. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | F · Potential for harm, facility-wide | The facility did not observe each nurse aide's job performance or provide regular training as required. · from a complaint |
| Aug 7, 2025 | F · Potential for harm, facility-wide | The facility did not get its food from approved, safe sources, or did not store, prepare, and serve food according to professional food safety standards. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | F · Potential for harm, facility-wide | The facility did not dispose of garbage and refuse properly. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | F · Potential for harm, facility-wide | The facility did not have or follow an effective program to prevent and control infections — such as proper hand washing, cleaning, and isolation practices. This is the most commonly cited deficiency nationwide. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | F · Potential for harm, facility-wide | The facility did not have a working program to monitor how antibiotics are used. Tracking antibiotic use helps make sure these drugs are given only when needed and remain effective. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | E · Potential for harm, repeated | The facility provided care that did not meet professional standards of quality — the accepted standards that nurses and other clinicians are expected to follow. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | E · Potential for harm, repeated | The facility's medication error rate was 5 percent or higher — meaning too many doses were given incorrectly, such as the wrong drug, dose, or time. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not make sure residents were fully informed about their own health, care, and treatments in a way they could understand. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility used physical restraints — devices that limit a resident's movement — when they weren't needed for medical treatment. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility gave residents unnecessary mind-altering (psychotropic) medications, or used drugs in a way that restrained residents by dulling their ability to think, move, or function. |
| Aug 7, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not have a licensed pharmacist review each resident's complete medication regimen and medical chart every month, or did not follow its own rules for reporting medication problems. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | F · Potential for harm, facility-wide | The facility did not have or follow an effective program to prevent and control infections — such as proper hand washing, cleaning, and isolation practices. This is the most commonly cited deficiency nationwide. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not treat residents with dignity and respect, or did not honor their rights to make their own decisions and communicate freely. This is one of the most fundamental resident rights. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not fully assess residents on time — a complete assessment of health, abilities, and needs is required when a resident is first admitted and at least once every 12 months after that. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not develop a resident's complete plan of care within 7 days of the full assessment, or the plan wasn't prepared, reviewed, and updated by a team of health professionals as required. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not keep the environment free of accident hazards, or did not provide enough supervision to prevent accidents like falls. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not provide appropriate care related to bladder and bowel needs — including care for residents who use catheters and steps to prevent urinary tract infections. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not provide safe and appropriate respiratory care — such as oxygen, breathing treatments, or care for residents on breathing equipment — for residents who needed it. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not provide bedrooms with required basics: a window to the outside, a room at or above ground level, adequate bedding, furniture that fits the resident's needs, or enough closet space. |
| Sep 6, 2023 | C · Minimal risk, facility-wide | The facility did not give residents proper notice about what Medicare or Medicaid covers, or about charges the resident might owe for services that aren't covered. |
| Dec 16, 2021 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not enter each resident's assessment information into the required format and send it to the state within 7 days of completing the assessment, as the rules require. |
| Dec 16, 2021 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not have a licensed pharmacist review each resident's complete medication regimen and medical chart every month, or did not follow its own rules for reporting medication problems. |
| Dec 16, 2021 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not try to gradually reduce doses of mood- and mind-altering medications or use non-drug approaches first, as required, or used 'as needed' psychiatric drugs without proper limits. |
| Dec 16, 2021 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not get its food from approved, safe sources, or did not store, prepare, and serve food according to professional food safety standards. |
Inspection trend by year
Citations from standard inspections increased between the last two inspection cycles (9 → 12).
| Year | Citations | Serious (G–L) | Worst severity that year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 4 | 0 | D |
| 2023 | 9 | 0 | F |
| 2025 | 12 | 1 | G ▲ |
Counts reflect the current CMS public record (~3 inspection cycles plus complaint investigations); years with no surveys show no row. Inspection frequency varies, so compare severity as well as counts.
Fines and enforcement (last 3 years)
No fines or payment denials in the published 3-year window.
Nurse staffing (from payroll records, adjusted for how much care residents need)
| Measure | This facility | Kansas avg | U.S. avg | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total nurse staffing (hours per resident per day) | 7.72 | 4.58 | 3.95 | top 2% in Kansas; top 1% in the U.S. |
| Registered Nurse hours | 1.59 | 0.81 | 0.69 | top 3% in Kansas; top 4% in the U.S. |
| Weekend total nurse staffing | 5.86 | 4.05 | 3.50 | top 6% in Kansas; top 2% in the U.S. |
| Weekend RN hours (not acuity-adjusted) | 0.93 | 0.49 | 0.48 | top 5% in Kansas; top 7% in the U.S. |
| Total nursing staff turnover (%) | 27.6 | 48.1 | 45.8 | top 7% in Kansas; top 10% in the U.S. |
| RN turnover (%) | 9.1 | 42.0 | 42.9 | top 9% in Kansas; top 3% in the U.S. |
Hours are per resident per day, case-mix adjusted by CMS so facilities caring for sicker residents can be compared fairly (same basis as the CMS staffing star). "Top X%" means better than most facilities: more staffing hours, or lower turnover. Raw (unadjusted) reported hours: total 6.58, RN 1.35, weekend 4.99. Staffing rating: 5/5.
Self-reported quality measures
Note: these ratings are based on data the facility reports about itself to CMS. They are not independently verified by inspectors, and can look better than inspection findings. Give more weight to the inspection results above.
Quality measures rating: 3/5 · long-stay residents: 3/5 · short-stay residents: —/5
Who owns this facility
Government - State
| Owner / manager | Type | Role | Stake | Since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bemiss, Amber | Individual | W-2 Managing Employee | NOT APPLICABLE | 07/08/2015 |
| Burden, Gregg | Individual | W-2 Managing Employee | NOT APPLICABLE | 07/08/2015 |
Questions to ask on your visit
Generated from this facility's actual citation record — bring them to a tour and ask the administrator directly.
- "How do you prevent bedsores for residents who can't move themselves, and how often are at-risk residents repositioned?"
- "How often do you evaluate your nurse aides and what ongoing training do they receive?"
- "What did your most recent kitchen inspection find, and can I see how food is stored and prepared?"
- "Can I see where garbage is stored and how often it's removed?"
- "Who leads your infection prevention program, and how do you make sure staff follow practices like hand hygiene every day?"
- "Who oversees antibiotic use here, and how do you decide when an antibiotic is really needed?"
- "Can you tell me what this citation involved and what steps you took to bring care back up to standard?"
- "What is your current medication error rate, and what have you changed to bring errors down?"
- "What is your current ratio of nursing staff to residents on day, evening, and weekend shifts?"
- "Can I see the results and plan of correction from your most recent state inspection?"
Nearby facilities (within 20 miles)
| Facility | Distance | City | Overall | Inspection | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manor of the Plains | 1.3 mi | Dodge City, KS | ★★★☆☆ | 3/5 | |
| Trinity Manor | 1.6 mi | Dodge City, KS | ★★★★☆ | 4/5 | |
| Sunporch of Dodge City | 1.6 mi | Dodge City, KS | ★★★☆☆ | 3/5 | |
| Southwind at Spearville | 15.9 mi | Spearville, KS | ★★★★☆ | 3/5 | |
| The Shepherd's Center | 18.5 mi | Cimarron, KS | ★★☆☆☆ | 1/5 | SFF |
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Facility data as of CMS processing date 2026-08-01. CCN 175513.