Both federal and state laws require skilled nursing facilities such as The Ellison John Transitional Care Center to provide sufficient and competent nursing staffing to meet the needs of their census populations. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) monitors and regulates skilled nursing facilities and their various staffing levels. Understaffing at skilled nursing facilities often leads to high employee turnover, employee burnout, unsafe working conditions, increased workload and overtime, and unsafe staff to patient ratios. In turn, such understaffing may lead to poor care, lower health inspection ratings, and more instances of abuse and/or neglect.

In its regulatory role, CMS created the Five-Star Rating System[1] that calculates various quality measures based on the data that each facility provides to CMS as part of their respective participation in the Medicare program. According to CMS, “[n]ursing homes with 5 stars are considered to have much above average quality and nursing homes with 1 star are considered to have quality much below average.”[2] Notably, among the most significant factors reviewed by CMS is the “staffing” provided to each facility’s census population.

Based on the data provided to CMS, CMS has determined that The Ellison John Transitional Care Center located at 43830 10th Street W in Lancaster, California garnered a 1 Star Rating for health inspections, which ranks at the bottom of that scale – “much below average.”[3] On February 23, 2024, The Ellison John Transitional Care Center was cited for numerous deficiencies, which are available to review in inquiring whether those same deficiencies may apply to you or your loved one (e.g., failing to “provide appropriate pressure ulcer care and prevent new ulcers from developing,” failure to “ensure that a nursing home area is free from accident hazards and provides adequate supervision to prevent accidents”).[4]