MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa ( IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH ) - An Iowa nursing home inadvertently locked a resident out of the facility, leaving her outside the building overnight in the rain.

According to state inspection records, a female resident of the Harmony Marshalltown nursing home exited the facility at 8 p.m. on July 7, to sit in the home’s courtyard. The resident couldn’t get back into the facility until 6 a.m. the following day.

Inspectors allege the staff failed to do visual bed checks on the woman for 10 hours, leaving her pounding on the door of the building amid rain, thunder and lightning.

The woman “began to panic, became fearful, scared and crying,” inspectors allege. Eventually, a kitchen worker heard her pounding on the door and let her inside. The woman later told inspectors she

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