Hyde Park Healthcare: Dirty Wound Care Violations - CA
The September 10 incident at Hyde Park Healthcare Center violated the facility's own infection control policies and basic wound care protocols. Federal inspectors observed the nurse treating a resident's buttocks wound while the patient's food, drinks, cell phone, and medical supplies shared the same table space as contaminated materials.
The resident's bedside table held two water cups with open straws, tissues, an open cereal box, a remote control, cell phone, clean dressings, gloves, wet gauze in a plastic cup, unidentified ointment, and a white spray bottle. The treatment nurse entered the room, put on gloves, and began wound care without clearing the personal items or cleaning the surface.
A certified nursing assistant helped turn the resident to his left side. The treatment nurse removed dirty dressings from the buttocks area and threw them into a trash bag hung on the bed rail. She cleaned the wound with the unidentified spray bottle contents from the table, dried the area, applied ointment from a plastic cup, and dressed the wound.
After repositioning the resident, the nursing assistant handed the trash bag containing dirty wound supplies to the treatment nurse, who placed it directly on the bedside table among the resident's personal items. The nurse then covered the resident, removed her gloves, and threw them into the same trash bag on the table.
The treatment nurse removed the contaminated bag from the table and disposed of it in the room's trash can. She moved the bedside table back in front of the resident and left without cleaning the surface that had held the dirty materials.
Nobody sanitized their hands.
When inspectors interviewed the treatment nurse an hour later, she acknowledged multiple protocol violations. She stated wound treatment should follow clean technique, which requires proper hand hygiene and infection control measures. Before wound care, she should have introduced herself, obtained a clean bedside table, removed all personal items, draped the surface, and arranged sterile supplies.
The nurse said she didn't remove the resident's personal items "because Resident 1 did not want his personal items removed." She admitted forgetting to remove her dirty gloves throughout the treatment and forgetting to clean the bedside table after placing the contaminated trash bag on it.
"Not following clean technique could lead to cross contamination, spread of germs leading to infections," the treatment nurse told inspectors.
The certified nursing assistant confirmed she hadn't sanitized her hands before entering the room or before turning the resident. She acknowledged she should have done so "to prevent the spread of germs."
Hyde Park Healthcare Center's own policies require licensed nurses to apply dressings using clean technique to promote wound healing and prevent cross-contamination. The facility's clean dressing change protocol, dated April 2015, specifies multiple hand washing steps: before starting, after removing dirty dressings and gloves, before applying clean gloves for wound cleaning, after cleaning but before applying new dressing, and after completing care.
The policy requires cleaning the work surface first, removing soiled materials in disposal bags, carefully drying wounds, and following standard precautions throughout the process. Staff should return residents to comfortable positions with call buttons within reach.
Hyde Park's infection control program policy, updated in June 2022, mandates standard precautions to prevent infection spread. Hand hygiene procedures must be followed by all staff with direct resident contact.
The facility's policies describe exactly what inspectors observed being ignored. Clean gloves contaminated by dirty ones. Personal items mixed with medical waste. Contaminated surfaces left uncleaned. Hand washing skipped entirely.
The resident required daily wound care with medical grade honey for 14 days. Instead of sterile healing environment, his treatment occurred amid breakfast cereal and drinking straws, with dirty dressing materials placed inches from his food and phone.
The treatment nurse's admission that she "forgot" basic infection control steps suggests either inadequate training or dangerous indifference to resident safety. Her acknowledgment that the resident didn't want items moved reveals staff prioritizing convenience over medical necessity.
Cross-contamination risks extend beyond the treated resident. The contaminated bedside table remained in the room. The unwashed hands touched other surfaces. The mixed clean and dirty supplies created infection pathways that proper protocols specifically prevent.
Federal inspectors classified this as minimal harm with potential for actual harm affecting few residents. But wound infections in elderly patients can prove devastating, turning treatable conditions into life-threatening complications.
The resident continues receiving daily wound care treatments. Whether subsequent nurses follow clean technique protocols or repeat the same dangerous shortcuts remains unclear.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Hyde Park Healthcare Center from 2025-09-11 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: June 20, 2026 · Our methodology
HYDE PARK HEALTHCARE CENTER in LOS ANGELES, CA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 11, 2025.
The September 10 incident at Hyde Park Healthcare Center violated the facility's own infection control policies and basic wound care protocols.
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.