The Hills Post Acute: Nail Care Failure Caused Skin Wounds - CA
That is what a federal inspection on March 24, 2025 found at the facility at 1800 Old Tustin Avenue.
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See the Derila PillowThe resident, identified in inspection records as Resident 2, was fully dependent on staff for his activities of daily living. His care plan specified that staff should assist him with hygiene and grooming. Trimming his nails was part of that obligation. When an inspector arrived that morning and reviewed his medical records alongside LVN 9, the nurse confirmed what the records showed and what the resident's hands made plain: the nails were long, they were sharp, and they had already caused skin impairment through self-inflicted scratches.
LVN 9 did not dispute any of it. The nurse stated directly that Resident 2's nails should have been kept short to prevent exactly this kind of harm, including the risk of infection that follows when broken skin goes unprotected in a care facility. The nurse confirmed that staff were responsible for this, that the care plan required it, and that it had not been done.
The inspection report does not say how long the nails had been left uncut. It does not say how many scratches there were, how deep, or whether any became infected. It does not name the staff members assigned to Resident 2's care or explain why the grooming task was skipped. What it records is the outcome: a man who could not help himself was left in a condition that hurt him.
By mid-afternoon, the Director of Nursing had been told. The DON acknowledged the findings.
The violation was cited at a level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting few residents. In the language of federal inspections, that places it toward the lower end of the severity scale. It does not carry the weight of an immediate jeopardy citation, the kind that signals a resident's life was at risk. But the scale is built for comparison across thousands of facilities and hundreds of violation types. For Resident 2, the harm was not minimal in any abstract sense. His skin was broken. His nails did it. The staff who were supposed to prevent that did not.
Care plans in nursing facilities exist because residents are not interchangeable. Resident 2's plan was described by LVN 9 as individualized, designed specifically to meet his personal care needs. Nail trimming was in it because someone had determined it needed to be. That determination was correct. The follow-through was not.
Facilities that accept residents who cannot perform their own hygiene take on a straightforward duty: do the hygiene. Clip the nails. Comb the hair. Change the clothes. These are not complex medical interventions. They are the reason a dependent person enters a care facility rather than trying to manage alone. When they are skipped, the resident has no recourse. Resident 2 could not trim his own nails. He could not flag a nurse and explain that his nails were getting dangerous. Whatever he could do, he did, and what he did was scratch himself until his skin gave way.
The Hills Post Acute has not publicly responded to the inspection findings. The plan of correction, if one has been submitted, was not included in the inspection materials reviewed.
Resident 2 remains at the facility.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for The Hills Post Acute from 2025-03-24 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 12, 2026 · Our methodology
THE HILLS POST ACUTE in SANTA ANA, CA was cited for violations during a health inspection on March 24, 2025.
That is what a federal inspection on March 24, 2025 found at the facility at 1800 Old Tustin Avenue.
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.