Palomar Heights Post Acute — Escondido, CA
This page sets out what the federal inspection record says about Palomar Heights Post Acute, a 98-bed nursing home at 1260 E Ohio Avenue, Escondido, California. Every figure below is copied from data the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes about nursing homes that take Medicare or Medicaid. We have not added our own judgment to it.
The record at a glance
| Federal ID (CCN) | 555764 |
| Legal business name | Palomar Heights Healthcare, LLC |
| Listed chain or group | Pacs Group |
| Address | 1260 E Ohio Avenue, Escondido, CA 92027 |
| Phone listed with CMS | (760) 746-1100 |
| Ownership type | For profit – Limited Liability company |
| Certified beds | 98 |
| Average residents per day | 82.6 |
| Certified since | December 6, 2000 |
| Overall CMS rating | 3 out of 5 |
| Health inspection rating | 2 out of 5 |
| Staffing rating | 3 out of 5 |
| Quality measures rating | 5 out of 5 |
| Total nursing staff turnover | 42.3% |
| Most recent standard inspection | May 30, 2025 |
CMS scores nursing homes from one to five stars. The health inspection rating is set relative to other nursing homes in the same state, so a one-star home is in the bottom fifth in California, not the bottom fifth nationally. Staffing and quality measure ratings are scored against national thresholds.
Federal penalties
CMS’s penalty file lists 2 federal penalties against this facility: 1 fine totalling $8,176, and 1 denial of payment for new admissions. A denial of payment means CMS stopped paying the home for residents admitted after a set date until the problem was fixed.
Inspectors have cited this home 31 times since January 2024
1 of those was at severity level G or above — what CMS calls actual harm. 11 came from complaints rather than routine inspections. Every one of them is listed below, with its date and what the rule required.
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Inspection citations since January 2024
CMS records 31 health citations at this facility from inspections between February 15, 2024 and May 21, 2026.
| Inspected | Tag | What the rule requires | Scope and severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 21, 2026 | F0689 | Ensure that a nursing home area is free from accident hazards and provides adequate supervision to prevent accidents. (complaint) | D — Isolated, Potential for more than minimal harm | Correction date Jun 19, 2026 |
| Apr 16, 2026 | F0760 | Ensure that residents are free from significant medication errors. (complaint) | D — Isolated, Potential for more than minimal harm | Correction date May 16, 2026 |
| Apr 16, 2026 | F0627 | Ensure the transfer/discharge meets the resident’s needs/preferences and that the resident is prepared for a safe transfer/discharge. (complaint) | D — Isolated, Potential for more than minimal harm | Correction date May 16, 2026 |
| Feb 17, 2026 | F0761 | Ensure drugs and biologicals used in the facility are labeled in accordance with currently accepted professional principles; and all drugs and biologicals must be stored in locked compartments, separately locked, compartments for controlled drugs. (complaint) | D — Isolated, Potential for more than minimal harm | Correction date Mar 17, 2026 |
| Feb 17, 2026 | F0842 | Safeguard resident-identifiable information and/or maintain medical records on each resident that are in accordance with accepted professional standards. (complaint) | D — Isolated, Potential for more than minimal harm | Correction date Mar 17, 2026 |
| May 30, 2025 | F0880 | Provide and implement an infection prevention and control program. | D — Isolated, Potential for more than minimal harm | Correction date Jul 3, 2025 |
| Jun 21, 2024 | F0684 | Provide appropriate treatment and care according to orders, resident’s preferences and goals. (complaint) | G — Isolated, Actual harm | Correction date Jul 19, 2024 |
The wording in the third column is CMS’s own plain-language summary of the federal rule that was cited, not a description of what happened. This table shows every one of the 1 citation at actual-harm level or above, plus the 6 most recent of the rest. The other 24 are in the CMS file linked below.
How to read scope and severity
Every citation gets a letter from A to L. The letter carries two things at once: how serious the problem was, and how many residents it reached.
| Severity | Isolated | Pattern | Widespread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety | J | K | L |
| Actual harm | G | H | I |
| No actual harm, potential for more than minimal harm | D | E | F |
| No actual harm, potential for minimal harm | A | B | C |
“Immediate jeopardy” is CMS’s term for a situation that has caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment or death. It requires the home to act at once.
What this page does not tell you
- A citation is an inspector’s finding against a federal rule. It is not a court judgment, and the facility may be disputing it. Citations marked “under dispute” above are in CMS’s formal review process.
- Citation counts partly reflect how often a home was inspected and how many complaints were filed about it. A home with more citations has not automatically given worse care than one with fewer.
- Bigger homes have more residents, more staff and more inspections, so they tend to accumulate more citations.
- None of this says anything about the care any one resident received. A home with a clean record can still fail somebody, and a home with a bad record can be caring for your mother well.
- This is a snapshot. CMS updates these files monthly, and the figures here are from the file dated August 1, 2026.
Where this comes from
- Ratings, ownership, beds and penalties: CMS Provider Information dataset (4pq5-n9py), file dated August 1, 2026.
- Citations: CMS Health Deficiencies dataset (r5ix-sfxw), file dated August 1, 2026, filtered to inspections on or after January 1, 2024.
- This facility on the government’s own site: Medicare Care Compare.
- Retrieved August 29, 2026. Our method is set out in Editorial policy and How we count.
For the facility
If anything on this page is wrong, out of date or missing context, we will correct it. Palomar Heights Post Acute and anyone acting for it can reach the watchdog team through our corrections and right of reply page. We publish the response alongside the record.
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