Holly Heights Care and Rehabilitation: Filthy Shower Rooms - CO
Federal inspectors visited the facility at 6000 E. Iliff Ave. on August 18, 2025, and within thirty minutes had walked through three separate shower rooms on three separate units. All three had problems.
The first stop was the Summit Ridge unit at 1:35 p.m. Empty shampoo and body wash bottles sat on the floor alongside piles of wet towels. The urine smell was noticeable. Inside the tub: a bag of wet towels, two more empty bottles, and the black grime and hair.
Ten minutes later, inspectors reached the Highline Creek unit. Dirty, wet towels on the floor again. Inside that tub, wet towels, empty bottles, and unidentified trash.
At 2:00 p.m., the Riverwalk unit shower room was not just dirty. It was inaccessible. Resident equipment filled the space, with no path to the shower stall.
The family member of one resident, identified in the inspection report as Resident 5's representative, described what she had seen on her own visits. She said that on one occasion there was feces all over the floor of the shower room and inside the shower itself, and that it smelled very bad. She said she had been in the shower rooms before and seen used towels on the floor and empty shampoo bottles left behind.
The staff accounts of who was responsible for cleaning the rooms did not quite match each other. A licensed practical nurse interviewed on August 20 said the certified nursing aides were supposed to clean the shower rooms after each use. Another LPN, interviewed six minutes later, said the CNAs cleaned at the end of their shift and housekeepers did a deep clean weekly. A CNA confirmed that version, saying CNAs cleaned after each use and housekeepers came through weekly.
Whatever the assigned schedule was, the rooms inspectors saw on August 18 did not reflect it.
The director of nursing offered a detail that raised its own questions. He said the facility was not currently using the tubs, though he did not know why. If a resident wanted a bath, he explained, a CNA would first need to figure out whether a tub was even working, and then clean it. His expectation, he said, was that shower rooms should be cleaned after every use and kept clean and disinfected regardless of whether the tubs were operational.
That expectation and the conditions inspectors documented were separated by black grime, piled towels, and a room full of equipment blocking the door.
Inspectors cited the facility for failing to provide a safe, functional, sanitary, and comfortable environment, finding violations in three of the four shower rooms they examined. The harm level was listed as minimal harm or potential for actual harm.
For the family member of Resident 5, the calculation was simpler. She had walked into a shower room and found feces on the floor and on the walls of the shower. She had been back other times and found wet towels and empty bottles. She kept coming back anyway, which is what family members do.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Holly Heights Care and Rehabilitation from 2025-08-21 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
HOLLY HEIGHTS CARE AND REHABILITATION in DENVER, CO was cited for violations during a health inspection on August 21, 2025.
Federal inspectors visited the facility at 6000 E.
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.