Maclay Healthcare: Patient Records Left Open on Screen - CA
The screen was still displaying the records at 9:04 in the morning on March 21, 2025, when an inspector and a registered nurse at the facility walked up to the station together. The login on the screen belonged to a licensed vocational nurse assigned to the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. That shift had ended hours earlier. Nobody had logged out.
The three residents whose files were open had all been admitted within the past year and a half. Two of them, admitted in February 2025, had diagnoses including type 2 diabetes, essential hypertension, and muscle weakness. One of those two had moderately impaired cognitive skills for daily decision making. The other's cognition was intact. A third resident, admitted in November 2023 with the same diagnoses, also had moderately impaired cognitive skills. Their clinical records, all three of them, sat visible on the screen.
The registered nurse standing with the inspector didn't minimize what she saw. She said the open screen meant the records had the potential for unauthorized access by facility staff who had no involvement in those residents' care, by visitors, and by outside agencies. Then she said something more direct: the facility had failed to ensure the residents' right to privacy was protected.
That assessment came from inside the building.
The facility's own written policy on electronic medical records states that only authorized persons who have been issued a password and user ID will be permitted access to the electronic records system. The policy describes a framework of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to prevent exactly this kind of exposure. The policy had been reviewed as recently as April 2025, a month after the inspection found it wasn't being followed.
What the policy describes and what inspectors found at 9 in the morning were two different things.
The residents whose records were left open couldn't necessarily protect themselves. Two of the three had moderately impaired decision-making. They were not in a position to know their files were sitting open at a nurses' station, visible to whoever walked by during the hours between the end of the night shift and the moment an inspector happened to notice.
Medical records contain the kind of information people don't choose to share: diagnoses, medications, functional limitations, cognitive status. For residents in a nursing facility, that information is often among the most sensitive they have. The two residents with impaired cognition had no way to advocate for their own privacy in that moment. The third, whose cognition was intact, had no way of knowing it was happening either.
The inspection was completed March 22, 2025. The deficiency was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting some residents.
The licensed vocational nurse whose login remained active on the screen was working a shift that ended at 7 a.m. By 9 o'clock, the records were still there.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Maclay Healthcare Center from 2025-03-22 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
Corrections: We strive for accuracy in everything we publish. If you believe any fact in this article is incorrect, please contact us with details, and we will review and correct it promptly.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: November 10, 2026 · Our methodology
MACLAY HEALTHCARE CENTER in SYLMAR, CA was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 22, 2025.
The login on the screen belonged to a licensed vocational nurse assigned to the 11 p.m.
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.