Citrus Post-Acute: Dishwasher Temp Failures Found - CA
The findings came from a June 21, 2024 inspection by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
On June 18, inspectors walked into the kitchen at 2:48 in the afternoon and watched the dish machine run. The temperature dial showed the wash cycle at 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the rinse cycle at 108 degrees. The facility's own posted requirements, attached to the machine itself, set the minimum for both cycles at 120 degrees. The rinse was running 12 degrees short. The wash was running 20 degrees short.
An inspector asked the dietary aide, identified in the report as DA 1, to read the rinse cycle temperature off the dial. DA 1 read it as 100 degrees. The inspector asked whether 100 degrees was acceptable. DA 1 said it was.
The Certified Dietary Manager stepped in to translate. After DA 1 was directed to check the temperature log, the aide looked at the numbers and agreed the rinse temperature was too low. The CDM told the inspector that DA 1 had only been working at the facility for two months.
That explanation raised its own problem. The facility's own job description for dietary aides, signed by DA 1 on April 18, 2011, listed preparing food in accordance with sanitary regulations and established policies and procedures as a core responsibility. That job description predated DA 1's employment by more than a decade, but it was the standard the facility itself had set.
Two days before the inspection, on June 19, the facility had held a training session on exactly this issue. The inservice lesson plan was titled "Dishwasher Machine Proper Temperature." The Maintenance Director delivered it by video. DA 1 was not there.
The facility's temperature log for June showed that on June 18 at lunch, the machine had recorded a wash temperature of 120 degrees and a rinse of 130 degrees. Those numbers were compliant. The readings the inspector observed hours later that same afternoon were not. The log and the dial told two different stories about the same machine on the same day.
On June 20, a registered dietitian told inspectors that all kitchen employees should be competent in dish machine procedures. That statement, made two days after the violation was observed, confirmed what the inspection had already documented: the standard existed, the training had been scheduled, and the employee running the machine had neither met the standard nor attended the training.
The violation was tagged under F0802, which covers the requirement that nursing facilities maintain food safety and proper sanitation in food preparation and service. CMS assessed the level of harm as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with some residents affected.
The dish machine is the last line of defense between the dishes residents eat from and whatever contamination those dishes carry out of the kitchen. A machine running 20 degrees below minimum wash temperature and 12 degrees below minimum rinse temperature is not sanitizing. It is washing. The difference matters in a facility where residents are elderly, often immunocompromised, and eating three meals a day off those dishes.
What the inspection captured was not a machine malfunction. The temperature dials were visible and readable. The log was posted. The training had just been offered. The aide ran the machine at the wrong temperature, read the dial, and believed the number was acceptable. Nobody in the kitchen caught it before an inspector walked in.
The registered dietitian's comment on June 20, that all kitchen employees should be competent in dish machine procedures, was accurate. It was also a description of something that had not happened.
DA 1 had been on the job for two months. The corrective training came and went without them. The machine ran low. The log, at least for the lunch shift that day, showed numbers that met the standard. The afternoon shift did not.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Citrus Post-acute from 2024-06-21 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: July 5, 2026 · Our methodology
Citrus Post-Acute in SANTA ANA, CA was cited for violations during a health inspection on June 21, 2024.
The findings came from a June 21, 2024 inspection by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.