Polaris Transitional Care
910 Compassion Circle, Anchorage, AK 99504 · Anchorage County · 50 certified beds · avg 46 residents/day · certified since Sep 1, 1983
Part of chain: THE ENSIGN GROUP (342 facilities, chain avg rating 3.2★)
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)
▲ Immediate jeopardy, one-off · Oct 17, 2023 · F-0755 · triggered by a complaint
The facility did not provide pharmacy services that meet each resident's needs, or did not employ or contract with a licensed pharmacist.
Why it matters: Weak pharmacy services lead to medication mistakes, delays, and missed drug interactions that can seriously harm residents.
Severity (J): Inspectors found a situation that put a resident's life or safety in immediate danger, affecting one or a few residents. The facility must fix it immediately — these citations often come with large fines.
Corrected: Oct 19, 2023 (Deficient, Provider has date of correction)
▲ Immediate jeopardy, one-off · Oct 17, 2023 · F-0760 · triggered by a complaint
The facility did not keep residents free from significant medication errors — such as giving the wrong drug, the wrong dose, or missing a critical medication.
Why it matters: A serious medication error can cause real harm, hospitalization, or worse.
Severity (J): Inspectors found a situation that put a resident's life or safety in immediate danger, affecting one or a few residents. The facility must fix it immediately — these citations often come with large fines.
Corrected: Oct 19, 2023 (Deficient, Provider has date of correction)
All citations in the current public record (22)
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 26, 2026 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not provide treatment and care that follows the doctor's orders and matches the resident's own preferences and goals. · from a complaint |
| Nov 21, 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. |
| Nov 21, 2025 | E · Potential for harm, repeated | The facility did not provide treatment and care that follows the doctor's orders and matches the resident's own preferences and goals. |
| Nov 21, 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. |
| Nov 21, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not honor residents' right to make their own choices about their daily lives, such as when to wake up, what to eat, or how to spend their time. |
| Nov 21, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not honor residents' rights to request, refuse, or stop treatment, to decline participation in medical research, or to make an advance directive — a written statement of their wishes for future medical care. |
| Nov 21, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not report suspected abuse, neglect, or theft to the proper authorities quickly enough, or did not report the results of its investigation. |
| Nov 21, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not keep residents' medications free from unnecessary drugs. Residents should only take medicines they truly need, at the right dose, for a clear reason. |
| Nov 21, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not protect residents' personal information or did not keep complete, accurate medical records that meet professional standards. |
| Nov 21, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | 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. |
| Jul 29, 2025 | F · Potential for harm, facility-wide | The facility did not conduct and document a facility-wide assessment of what staff, supplies, and resources it needs to care for its residents properly — during everyday operations, nights, weekends, and emergencies. · from a complaint |
| Jul 29, 2025 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not provide a safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment, including safe support for residents' daily living needs. · from a complaint |
| Nov 1, 2024 | 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. |
| Nov 1, 2024 | 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. |
| Nov 1, 2024 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not properly hold, secure, and manage residents' personal money that was deposited with it for safekeeping. Facilities holding residents' funds must keep careful, honest accounts. |
| Nov 1, 2024 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not honor residents' right to voice complaints without discrimination or retaliation, or did not have a working complaint process that resolves issues promptly. |
| Nov 1, 2024 | 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. |
| Nov 1, 2024 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not label drugs according to professional standards or did not store them in locked compartments, with controlled drugs (medications with a high risk of misuse) kept under a separate lock. |
| Oct 17, 2023 | ▲ J · Immediate jeopardy, one-off | The facility did not provide pharmacy services that meet each resident's needs, or did not employ or contract with a licensed pharmacist. · from a complaint |
| Oct 17, 2023 | ▲ J · Immediate jeopardy, one-off | The facility did not keep residents free from significant medication errors — such as giving the wrong drug, the wrong dose, or missing a critical medication. · from a complaint |
| Sep 1, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not provide the help residents need with basic daily activities — like bathing, dressing, eating, and using the bathroom — for residents who cannot do these things on their own. |
| Sep 1, 2023 | D · Potential for harm, one-off | The facility did not develop and follow policies and procedures for offering residents flu and pneumonia vaccinations. |
Inspection trend by year
Citations from standard inspections increased between the last two inspection cycles (6 → 9).
| Year | Citations | Serious (G–L) | Worst severity that year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 | 2 | J ▲ |
| 2024 | 6 | 0 | F |
| 2025 | 11 | 0 | F |
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | D |
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)
1 fine totaling $109,382.
| Date | Type | Amount / length |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2023 | Fine | $109,382 |
Nurse staffing (from payroll records, adjusted for how much care residents need)
| Measure | This facility | Alaska avg | U.S. avg | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total nurse staffing (hours per resident per day) | 4.33 | 7.40 | 3.95 | bottom 1% in Alaska; top 28% in the U.S. |
| Registered Nurse hours | 2.00 | 2.28 | 0.69 | bottom 44% in Alaska; top 2% in the U.S. |
| Weekend total nurse staffing | 3.66 | 6.63 | 3.50 | bottom 6% in Alaska; top 35% in the U.S. |
| Weekend RN hours (not acuity-adjusted) | 1.76 | 1.59 | 0.48 | top 25% in Alaska; top 1% in the U.S. |
| Total nursing staff turnover (%) | 66.0 | 48.3 | 45.8 | bottom 23% in Alaska; bottom 9% in the U.S. |
| RN turnover (%) | 53.3 | 46.0 | 42.9 | bottom 33% in Alaska; bottom 31% 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 4.97, RN 2.30, weekend 4.20. Staffing rating: 4/5.
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: 5/5 · long-stay residents: 3/5 · short-stay residents: 5/5
Who owns this facility
For profit - Limited Liability company
| Owner / manager | Type | Role | Stake | Since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnam, Soon | Individual | Corporate Officer | NOT APPLICABLE | 09/12/2024 |
| Cullifer, Jared | Individual | Corporate Officer | NOT APPLICABLE | 09/12/2024 |
| Hancox, Neil | Individual | Operational/Managerial Control | NOT APPLICABLE | 03/01/2025 |
| Hancox, Neil | Individual | ADP of the SNF | NOT APPLICABLE | 02/11/2025 |
| Tieva, Daniel | Individual | Managing Control - Governing Body | NOT APPLICABLE | 03/01/2025 |
| Tieva, Daniel | Individual | ADP of the SNF | NOT APPLICABLE | 03/01/2025 |
| Willits, Adam | Individual | Corporate Director | NOT APPLICABLE | 09/12/2024 |
| Willits, Adam | Individual | Corporate Officer | NOT APPLICABLE | 09/12/2024 |
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 does your pharmacist review residents' medications, and how quickly can you fill new or urgent prescriptions?"
- "What systems do you use to prevent medication errors, and what happens when one occurs?"
- "How do you make sure each resident's care follows the doctor's orders, and what changed after this citation?"
- "What did your most recent kitchen inspection find, and can I see how food is stored and prepared?"
- "How do you explain health changes and treatment options to residents and their families?"
- "What choices do residents have over their daily schedule, like meal times, bathing, and activities?"
- "How do you record and honor each resident's treatment wishes and advance directives, and how do staff know about them?"
- "When abuse or theft is suspected, who do you notify, how fast, and how do you inform the family?"
- "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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polaris Extended Care | 0.0 mi | Anchorage, AK | ★★☆☆☆ | 1/5 | abuse |
| Centennial Post Acute | 2.5 mi | Anchorage, AK | ★☆☆☆☆ | 1/5 |
Compare this facility with the 2 closest →
Facility data as of CMS processing date 2026-08-01. CCN 025018.