Worried about California nursing homes? This database offers grades, list of violations

Approximately 82 percent of the nearly 1,200 nursing homes — 976 separate facilities — in California have been cited with some sort of infection prevention and control violation in the past two years, a Sacramento Bee review of survey reports found.

By far the most common infection-related violation in California nursing homes involved “Level 2” failures like improper or infrequent hand-washing or improperly handling food trays, documents show. With letter grades D, E and F, these accounted for 98 percent of the 1,588 infection-related deficiencies in California that The Bee reviewed.

On the other end of the spectrum are rarely used, but serious, “Level 4” deficiencies. With letter grades J, K and L, these are cases where surveyors determine the infection risk is putting residents in “immediate jeopardy.” At least 18 nursing homes in the past two years have been flagged as “immediate jeopardy.”

In the database below, you can search for nursing homes in California to see their recent infection prevention and control grades. For details about what those grades mean, look at the “scope and severity grid.”

To learn more about the violation or read other detailed inspection reports about any facility, go here.

Then search by city or state, click the facility name and select “health inspections.” For infection prevention and control violations, search for “F 0880” on the inspection document.

“Our providers are facing an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic scenario,” said Deborah Pacyna, spokeswoman for the California Association of Health Facilities, which represents the majority of nursing homes in the state. “Preventing the coronavirus from getting into a facility is the highest priority at skilled nursing facilities right now.”

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This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Worried about California nursing homes? This database offers grades, list of violations."