Highland Hills Post Acute: Staff Training Failure - PA
The inspection, completed September 25, 2025, was triggered by a complaint. It produced a single documented deficiency, rated at the lowest level of harm on the federal scale. That rating means inspectors found minimal harm or potential for actual harm, not that nothing went wrong. It means the consequences, so far as inspectors could determine, had not yet materialized in a way that could be measured.
What inspectors found was straightforward. They reviewed training records and education documents for five nursing aides. Two of them, identified in the report as Employee E15 and Employee E5, had no documentation showing they had ever received education on effective communication. The records simply did not include it.
At 9:52 in the morning on the day of the inspection, a human resources employee identified as E9 got on the phone with investigators. The confirmation was direct. The facility had failed to provide the training. Two of five nursing aides. No qualification, no dispute.
Effective communication training in a nursing home context covers how direct care staff talk with residents, how they convey information about care, how they recognize and respond to what residents are trying to tell them. Nursing aides are the staff members residents see most. They handle the daily, physical work of care: bathing, dressing, repositioning, feeding. They are present in ways that nurses and administrators often are not. When something is wrong, a resident's most immediate option is usually to tell an aide.
What happens when an aide has not been trained in how to receive that information, or how to pass it along, is not always visible in an inspection report. The gap shows up in records, or it doesn't show up at all.
Highland Hills Post Acute operates at 1105 Perry Highway in Pittsburgh, in the 15237 zip code. The inspection was conducted under Pennsylvania Department of Health authority, with the deficiency cited under three sections of the Pennsylvania Code: 201.14(a), covering the responsibility of the licensee; 201.18(b)(1), covering management; and 201.20(a)(6)(d), covering staff development. The facility's provider identification number is 395826.
The report does not describe any resident who was harmed. It does not name a resident who tried to communicate something and was not understood, or who stopped trying. It does not record a complaint that went unheard because the person meant to hear it had not been taught how to listen. The inspection found a training gap, confirmed it, and classified it. That is the record.
What the record does not contain is any account of what Employee E15 and Employee E5 were doing during the months or years they worked without that training, who they cared for, or whether any of those residents had something they needed to say.
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.
The inspection, completed September 25, 2025, was triggered by a complaint.
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.