Santa Anita Convalescent Hospital: Sanitation Failures - CA
Six minutes later, the assistant administrator walked through the same room at Santa Anita Convalescent Hospital and confirmed what the housekeeper had described, and then some. The floor was cluttered with empty cups, cup covers, and food wrappers. The floor itself was crusted with dirt. The toilet bowl had dry feces on the seat. A dirty white towel with a brownish, crusted substance was sitting on top of the covered linen barrel instead of inside it. And a dinner tray from the night before was still sitting in the room, the food left out overnight.
The assistant administrator said it plainly: the room could harbor bacteria and attract insects, ants, cockroaches, and rodents.
The room belonged to two residents. One of them, identified in the inspection report only as Resident 1, is a diabetic man with a history of falls and unspecified vision loss. His cognitive skills were assessed as intact. The other resident, Resident 2, also has Type II diabetes and a history of falls, and her cognitive skills were assessed as severely impaired, meaning she may not have been able to recognize the conditions around her or ask for help addressing them.
Resident 1 could recognize them. When inspectors interviewed him the following morning, he said he was worried the dirty bathroom would make him sick.
The infection preventionist nurse was asked about the conditions on the same day inspectors walked through. She said the overnight food tray should have been removed after the resident finished eating. She said the soiled towel sitting on top of the linen barrel was an infection control problem, because another resident could pick it up and wipe themselves with it. She said the dirty toilet was not acceptable. She said these conditions can cause sickness that is harmful to residents.
None of this was a matter of interpretation. The housekeeper, the assistant administrator, and the infection preventionist nurse all agreed on what the room looked like and what it meant.
The inspection was a complaint survey, conducted August 12 and 13, 2025. Inspectors cited the facility for failing to maintain a safe, clean, sanitary, and home-like environment for two of the three residents in their sample. The findings covered the toilet, the floor, the soiled towel, and the leftover food tray.
Resident 2, whose decision-making was severely impaired, had no way to raise an alarm about any of it. She was living in a room that her own facility's assistant administrator described as a potential breeding ground for insects and rodents, and the inspection record contains no indication of when the room had last been properly cleaned before inspectors arrived.
Resident 1 knew something was wrong. He told inspectors he was worried about getting sick. He said it the morning after inspectors had already documented the dried feces, the crusted floor, and the towel that should have been inside the barrel but wasn't.
The facility's own policy, last revised in November 2017, states its purpose is to provide residents with a safe, clean, comfortable, and home-like environment, with staff paying close attention to cleanliness and order.
On the morning of August 12, the room shared by Resident 1 and Resident 2 had not been cleaned. The toilet had not been cleaned. The dinner tray from the night before had not been removed. The soiled towel had been set down on top of the barrel and left there.
Resident 1 was still worried about getting sick.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Santa Anita Convalescent Hospital from 2025-08-13 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Download the official CMS inspection PDF from Medicare.gov
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 22, 2026 · Our methodology
SANTA ANITA CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL in TEMPLE CITY, CA was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 13, 2025.
The floor was cluttered with empty cups, cup covers, and food wrappers.
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.