DSH Metropolitan SNF: 8 Years of Missed Evaluations - CA
Inspectors cited Dept of State Hospitals - Metropolitan SNF following a complaint investigation, documenting that Psychiatric Technician 1, hired in November 2017, had no performance evaluations on file, not one, across eight full years of employment.
The facility's own human resources manager confirmed the scope of what was missing. During a review of PT 1's employee file on September 23, 2025, the Staff Services Manager for HR told inspectors there should have been eight annual evaluations completed for PT 1 and that it was "not normal" for all of them to be absent.
Two days later, the unit supervisor gave inspectors a simpler explanation. She hadn't done them. "It was an oversight," she said. She also told inspectors that performance evaluations existed for a reason, that they were "necessary to provide feedback and education to an employee." She confirmed this while also confirming she had provided none of that feedback or education to PT 1 across the entirety of the technician's tenure at the facility.
That gap spans nearly a third of a decade. PT 1 was hired when Donald Trump was in his first year in office. In the years since, the facility conducted no formal assessment of whether PT 1 was meeting job expectations, developing necessary skills, or falling short in ways that supervision could have caught and corrected.
The inspection was a complaint investigation, not a routine survey, meaning someone prompted regulators to look. The report does not say who filed the complaint or what initially raised concerns.
What inspectors found when they looked was a paperwork trail that simply stopped before it started. The facility's own policy, titled Performance Appraisal and Employee Development and updated as recently as November 2023, states that all supervisors and managers will prepare a Performance Appraisal Summary on employees assigned to them at least once each year. The unit supervisor was aware of this requirement. She confirmed it to inspectors. She had not followed it.
CMS classified the violation under F0940, which covers training program requirements, with a harm level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and noted that few residents were affected. The agency's concern is not only what PT 1 may or may not have done, but what the facility lost the opportunity to catch. Performance evaluations in clinical settings are one of the mechanisms through which supervisors identify gaps in technique, attitude, knowledge, and conduct. Eight years without one means eight years without that mechanism functioning for this employee.
The unit supervisor's acknowledgment that evaluations provide feedback and education makes the admission more pointed, not less. She understood the purpose of the process she skipped.
The facility is operated by the California Department of State Hospitals, a state agency that oversees psychiatric care facilities across California. Its Norwalk campus operates a skilled nursing facility embedded within that system, serving a population that carries both medical and psychiatric complexity. The staff working those units, including psychiatric technicians, operate in an environment where clinical judgment, de-escalation skills, and patient handling matter in ways that go beyond what a job description captures on the day someone is hired.
None of that was formally assessed for PT 1 between November 2017 and the date inspectors arrived.
The HR manager told inspectors the missing evaluations were not normal. The unit supervisor told inspectors it was an oversight. Between those two statements is eight years, one employee, and no record of whether any of it went well or badly.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Dept of State Hospitals - Metropolitan Snf from 2025-11-14 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 5, 2026 · Our methodology
DEPT OF STATE HOSPITALS - METROPOLITAN SNF in NORWALK, CA was cited for violations during a health inspection on November 14, 2025.
The facility's own human resources manager confirmed the scope of what was missing.
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.