Artesia Palms Care Center
- Reviewed By
Anthony C. Lanzone, Founding Partner
Artesia Palms Care Center is a 296-bed facility with a troubling history of abuse and neglect. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have raised concerns about severe quality and safety issues at this facility that jeopardize the health and welfare of residents.
If you are considering placing your loved one in this facility or your loved one is already here, it is important to be aware of the following facts about Artesia Palms Care Center:
- The Centers for has listed it as a Special Focus Facility—a designation for the worst nursing homes in each state that subjects facilities to enhanced oversight and penalties, which could lead to decertification.
- The “red hand” icon appears on this facility’s page on Medicare.gov, which alerts the public that the facility has been cited for abuse.
- The US News & World Report has given this facility a one-star rating.
- Over the last three years, Artesia Palms Care Center has received 94 citations, which have resulted in $319,000 in fines and two payment suspensions.
- The facility has received 32 complaints that resulted in citations, including a substantiated complaint in 2024 regarding a resident with cognitive impairment who left the facility against medical advice and went missing.
Table of Contents:
- Quality and Safety Ratings for Artesia Palms Care Center
- Health and Safety Deficiencies at Artesia Palms Care Center
- Act Now If You Suspect Your Loved One Is Being Abused or Neglected
- Our Proven Track Record of Holding Nursing Homes Accountable for All Types of Abuse
- Start the Path to Justice and Compensation Today
Quality and Safety Ratings for Artesia Palms Care Center
US News & World Report has given Artesia Palms Care Center a one-star rating out of a possible three stars for its short-term rehabilitation and long-term care quality. ProPublica reports that this facility has had 94 deficiencies in the last three years and paid $319,000 in fines. On two separate occasions, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services suspended payments for services until the facility corrected deficiencies.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes inspection and violation details on Medicare.gov. During the last three years leading up to May 2025, Artesia Palms Care Center had 32 complaints that resulted in a citation and 52 facility-reported issues that resulted in citations. The facility received 17 health citations during the most recent inspection alone and has had seven complaint inspections during the one year from May 2024 through January 2025.
Medicare adds a red hand icon to a facility’s page when it has been cited for abuse. Artesia Palms Care Center is flagged with this symbol. It currently has no rating because its long-term performance has been so poor that it is designated a Special Focus Facility.
What Is a Special Focus Facility?
Special Focus Facilities are nursing homes that receive heightened regulatory oversight due to quality issues. Facilities with double the average number of deficiencies, multiple severe deficiencies, and a longstanding pattern of serious violations receive this designation. Even when the facilities correct deficiencies, the violations often recur by the next inspection because they fail to address the root causes.
Facilities earn points based on the number and severity of deficiencies during the last three years of inspections. The facilities with the most points in their respective states become candidates. Five to 30 facilities can be added to the candidate lists for each slot. California has six slots.
Once a California nursing home becomes a Special Focus Facility, the state Department of Health inspects the facility every six months, imposing “progressive enforcement” like increased fines, until it graduates or loses its Medicare and Medicaid certification. As of March 2025, Artesia Palms Care Center has been a Special Focus Facility for 35 months. It met the criteria for graduation during its last inspection, but a facility must have at least two consecutive standard health inspections with 12 or fewer serious deficiencies to graduate.
Why Does Artesia Palms Care Center Have So Many Violations?
Understaffing is often the driving force behind nursing home abuse and neglect, but inspection reports reveal that Artesia Palms Care Center provides residents with more nursing time than the state and national averages. Each resident reportedly receives an average of four hours and 44 minutes of care daily. However, certified nursing assistants provide over three hours of care, and residents receive just 18 minutes of registered nurse care per day, which is less than half of the state and national averages.
While Artesia Palms Care Center’s overall staff turnover rate is lower than the national average, it is higher than the state average. Additionally, the turnover rate for registered nurses is significantly higher than the state and national averages. Of all nursing home staff, registered nurses receive the most professional training. Thus, they play an important supervisory role in patient care. The low number of daily care hours and the high turnover rate for registered nurses at this facility suggest that it does not employ enough of them. They may be underpaid and overextended, making it difficult for them to monitor the quality of resident care.
Health and Safety Deficiencies at Artesia Palms Care Center
Being a Special Focus Facility has not prevented Artesia Palms Care Center from providing substandard care. Deficiencies discovered in the most recent inspection alone include the following:
- Failure to protect a resident from physical abuse: A resident with a history of verbal altercations, agitation, and paranoia punched a resident with cognitive impairment in the nose while unsupervised.
- Failure to follow a resident’s care plan: The care plan called for the resident to wear a medical alert bracelet to notify staff that the resident was prescribed blood thinners.
- Failure to provide appropriate care according to orders: A resident with a fractured radius had orders for a follow-up visit in two weeks, but did not receive it until 46 days later.
- Pharmacy violations. Staff failed to dispose of needles properly and did not provide complete documentation when dispensing narcotics.
- Inappropriate psychotropic medication practices. The facility prescribed an antipsychotic medication to a resident who did not have a diagnosis appropriate for the prescription.
- Infection control violation. A licensed vocational nurse failed to follow proper hand hygiene procedures while checking lunch trays in the dining room.
Get started on your path to justice with Lanzone Morgan, LLP. With 75+ years of experience, we have a proven track record of holding nursing homes accountable.
Complaints Against Artesia Palms Care Center
The Department of Health performed seven complaint inspections between May 2024 and January 2025, which resulted in citations for the following:
- Failure to provide safe, appropriate pain management
- Failure to supervise a legally blind resident during mealtime, resulting in the resident being unsatisfied and humiliated
- Refusal to readmit a resident to the facility after hospitalization
- Failure to prevent a resident from falling during an unassisted wheelchair transfer, resulting in a fractured shin bone
- Failure to ensure a resident was competent before discharging them, resulting in the resident going missing and possibly experiencing substantial harm
Act Now If You Suspect Your Loved One Is Being Abused or Neglected
Nursing home abuse and neglect can cause serious health consequences, but it typically happens in secret. If you suspect your loved one has experienced neglect or mistreatment, don’t wait to take action. While writing down your observations is a good idea, you do not need proof to report abuse or contact an attorney. If the nursing home knows you suspect abuse, it might try to cover it up. You could lose out on important evidence if you wait too long. You can contact the following resources to initiate an investigation:
- The California Department of Public Health – Call (800) 554-0354 to initiate an investigation.
- The Long-Term Care Ombudsman – Call the CRISIS line at (800) 231-4024 to request a confidential advocate to visit your loved one and investigate abuse.
- An experienced California nursing home abuse lawyer at Lanzone Morgan, LLP – We are one of the leading elder abuse law firms in the United States with a proven track record of holding nursing homes accountable. Contact us online or call (888) 887-9777 to schedule a free case review..
Our Proven Track Record of Holding Nursing Homes Accountable for All Types of Abuse
We are one of the leading elder abuse law firms in the United States. Nursing home abuse is all we do, so we handle cases with extreme efficiency and a depth of experience in all types of nursing home injuries beyond what other law firms can provide, including the following:
- Physical abuse
- Sexual assault
- Verbal abuse
- Financial abuse
- Falls and fractures
- Choking
- Subdural hematomas
- Infections
- Malnutrition
- Dehydration
- Poor hygiene
- Overmedication
- Wandering and elopement
- Wrongful death
We have built a reputation in the nursing home litigation space, so nursing home corporations know who we are and fear facing us in court. Our notable verdicts and settlements include the following:
- $3 million settlement for a nursing home resident who developed a coccyx bedsore due to nursing home neglect
- $2.3 million verdict against a Los Angeles nursing home on behalf of an 84-year-old resident who suffered severe permanent injuries from neglect
- $1.3 million verdict against a Monterey nursing home for a client who broke her leg while showering her mother after the nursing home refused
- $1.2 million settlement against a doctor and a nursing home for the family of a resident who starved to death in the facility
Start the Path to Justice and Compensation Today
We are an experienced elder abuse law firm singularly focused on protecting the rights and dignity of seniors. We sue all types of elder care facilities for neglect and abuse, including nursing homes, hospitals, assisted living facilities, residential care homes, and adult day centers. We handle cases across the entire state of California, including the following areas:
- Anaheim
- Fresno
- Huntington Beach
- Irvine
- Long Beach
- Los Angeles
- Oakland
- Riverside
- Sacramento
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- San Jose
- Santa Ana
We will travel to you and invest our own resources to pursue justice for your loved one. Our attorneys are available 24/7. We charge no upfront fees, and you pay nothing unless we win. If you suspect your loved one has experienced abuse at Artesia Palms Care Center or any other care facility in California, contact us online or call (888) 887-9777 immediately to speak with one of our compassionate nursing home abuse attorneys at no cost or obligation.
Disclaimer: The inspection information provided above comes from public sources. Lanzone Morgan, LLP, cannot ensure this page reflects the most current data or complete findings. For the latest information, visit www.il.gov or medicare.gov. Deficiencies listed may have been corrected since the inspection date and the time of publication. This page is a legal advertisement and information resource. It is not endorsed by the named facility or any government agency. Lanzone Morgan, LLP, is not affiliated with the facility discussed.
- Fact-Checked
This content has been legally reviewed and approved by nursing home abuse attorney, Anthony Lanzone. Anthony holds notable memberships with professional organizations including the American Association for Justice and Consumer Attorneys of California.
VIEW SOURCES
Artesia Palms Care Center. (n.d.). Artesia Palms Care Center | Nursing home in Artesia, CA.
https://health.usnews.com/best-nursing-homes/area/ca/artesia-palms-care-center-555565
Talbot, R., Groeger, L. V., & Ornstein, C. (2012, August 14). Artesia Palms Care Center in California | Nursing Home Records | ProPublica – Nursing Home Inspect. ProPublica. https://projects.propublica.org/nursing-homes/homes/h-555565
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.-c).
https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/details/nursing-home/555565?state=CA
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES & Center for Clinical Standards and Quality/Quality Safety & Oversight Group. (2023). Special Focus Facility (SFF) program. In Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [Report].
https://www.cms.gov/files/document/sff-posting-candidate-list-march-2025.pdf
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.-d).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2025, January 10).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.-e).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024, December 19).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024a, October 16).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024a, July 13).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024a, June 6).
- Fact-Checked
This content has been legally reviewed and approved by nursing home abuse attorney, Anthony Lanzone. Anthony holds notable memberships with professional organizations including the American Association for Justice and Consumer Attorneys of California.
VIEW SOURCES
Artesia Palms Care Center. (n.d.). Artesia Palms Care Center | Nursing home in Artesia, CA.
https://health.usnews.com/best-nursing-homes/area/ca/artesia-palms-care-center-555565
Talbot, R., Groeger, L. V., & Ornstein, C. (2012, August 14). Artesia Palms Care Center in California | Nursing Home Records | ProPublica – Nursing Home Inspect. ProPublica. https://projects.propublica.org/nursing-homes/homes/h-555565
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.-c).
https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/details/nursing-home/555565?state=CA
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES & Center for Clinical Standards and Quality/Quality Safety & Oversight Group. (2023). Special Focus Facility (SFF) program. In Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [Report].
https://www.cms.gov/files/document/sff-posting-candidate-list-march-2025.pdf
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.-d).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2025, January 10).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (n.d.-e).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024, December 19).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024a, October 16).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024a, July 13).
Find health care providers: Compare care near you | Medicare. (2024a, June 6).