The California HealthCare Foundation is a nonprofit philanthropy committed to improving California's health care delivery and financing systems. Formed in 1996, the Foundation's goal is to ensure that all Californians have access to affordable, quality health care.

The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, is dedicated to advancing knowledge through theory and research, designing and evaluating the organization, financing, and delivery of health care; and examining the broad dynamics of health, healing, and the production of knowledge and its application in these domains.

Project History

Although there is some information on long-term care quality available to the public, it is generally hard for consumers to find and even harder to understand. The growing need for information about long-term care quality prompted the California HealthCare Foundation to fund a team of researchers to develop a one-stop resource for unbiased information about quality of care in California.

California Nursing Home Search began in 2002 with a Web site that offered information and ratings on nursing homes. In December 2004, we added similar profiles and ratings of home health care agencies and hospice services. And in September 2005, the site was expanded to include congregate living health facilities, residential facilities, continuing care retirement communities, adult day health care programs, and adult day care centers.

This site provides consumers information on a variety of care options and help in making decisions. The goals of the site are to help consumers choose the right long-term care care for their needs and improve that care through public disclosure of ratings by providing independently verified information.

The Data

The Web site is updated quarterly. For a detailed description of the data, see How We Rate Facilities and Services.

Acknowledgments

The research needed to analyze, compile, and validate the quality data for the California Nursing Home Search Web site was carried out by: Charlene Harrington, Ph.D., R.N., Professor and Principal Investigator, and Janis O’Meara, M.P.A., Project Director, at the UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences; John F. Schnelle, Ph.D., Professor and Sandra Simmons, Ph.D.; and Barbara Bates Jensen, Ph.D., R.N., CWOCN, at the UCLA Borun Center for Gerontological Research at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging; Debra Saliba, M.D., M.P.H., at RAND Corporation; and David R. Zimmerman, Ph.D., Professor and Director and Barbara Rudolph, Ph.D., at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis.

In addition, special contributions to the project were made by Martin Kitchener, Ph.D., Eric Collier, M.S., R.N., Nicole Laborde, M.P.H., Alicia Neuman, M.P.A., Carrie Graham, Ph.D., Valerie Wellin, and Helen Carrillo, M.S., at the UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences; James H. Swan, Ph.D., Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas; Ciaran O’Neill, Ph.D. at RAND Corporation; Mary P. Cadogan, Ph.D., R.N., GNP, at the UCLA School of Nursing; Dan Osterweil, M.D., C.M.D., Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics, UCLA; and Nahla R. Al-Samarrai, M.S., Cathy Alessi, Georgina Cabrera, M.S.G., Emily Garcia, Vlena Grbic, Jennifer Jorge, Lene Levy-Storms, Ph.D., M.P.H., Noriko Yamamoto Mitani, Ph.D., R.N., and June Yoskii at the UCLA Borun Center for Gerontological Research at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging.