Highland Hills Post Acute: Aggression Safety Failures - PA
That was July 9, 2025, at Highland Hills Post Acute on Perry Highway. It was not the beginning of the story.
The resident, identified in inspection records only as Resident R1, had been threatening and physically attacking people inside the facility since at least May. On the night of May 18, emergency medical personnel who had just returned him from the VA Hospital were still waiting outside his room when he began swearing and threatening to harm a nurse. The VA had been unable to place him on a psychiatric hold earlier that day because, according to the inspection report, no one from the facility had shown up to petition for it.
Later that same night, he was trying to enter other residents' rooms. When staff redirected him, he told them to screw themselves.
By June 30, he punched another resident in the ear. Police and EMS responded but said they could not take him. A crisis line was called. At 12:29 in the morning on July 1, officers interviewed him and found him calm, and left without him, citing his dementia diagnosis. A remote provider note logged hours later described what the facility already knew: he had been in a locked unit before, his aggressive behaviors had been increasing since he moved to the current unit, and he had just hit another resident.
Nine days later, he grabbed the scissors.
The nurse's account in the inspection record is direct. The resident walked up to the cart quickly, grabbed the scissors, and attempted to harm the nurse with them. Staff grabbed the scissors by the blade end to stop him and yelled for help. Others came. He was taken by ambulance to a city hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Resolve Crisis arrived and warranted a 302 involuntary commitment. When he came back that evening, the discharge paperwork listed a urinary tract infection and antibiotics. He was back on the unit.
On July 17, he was swinging his fist at another resident. No contact was made. The residents were separated.
Through all of this, the facility had a plan: transfer him to a VA facility with a dedicated behavioral unit. A social worker, identified as Employee E10, had contacted the Southwestern VA center on June 24 to get fax and referral information. Three days later, she spoke with the family, who agreed the VA could provide the best care. She faxed the paperwork on June 27.
Then Employee E10 left the facility.
What followed was nearly three months of nothing. The Director of Nursing, interviewed by inspectors on September 24, confirmed it directly: documentation showed active transfer efforts on June 24 and June 27 under Employee E10, and the next social worker, Employee E11, did not make any active transfer efforts until September 23, almost three months later.
On that morning, Employee E11 called the VA center to ask about a transfer. No one answered. She left a message.
That was two days before inspectors arrived.
The Director of Nursing told inspectors that Employee E10 had been working on the transfer but no longer worked there. There was no indication in the inspection record that anyone had assigned the case to Employee E11, checked on the transfer's status, or noticed the gap during the months in between, months that included the scissors incident and the July 17 fist-swinging episode.
The inspection report cites violations across nursing services, social services, resident rights, and facility management. The harm level is listed as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, a designation that applies to a narrow set of residents, in this case one of twelve.
The scissors were taken away. The nurse was not stabbed. Those facts appear in the record. What the record also contains is a timeline: a man with escalating violence, a facility that knew he needed to be somewhere else, a social worker who left, and a three-month window in which no one picked up where she left off.
On the morning of September 23, Employee E11 left a voicemail at the VA and waited for a call back.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Highland Hills Post Acute from 2025-09-25 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.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: September 12, 2026 · Our methodology
HIGHLAND HILLS POST ACUTE in PITTSBURGH, PA was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 25, 2025.
That was July 9, 2025, at Highland Hills Post Acute on Perry Highway.
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.