How do I check whether a California care home has been inspected or cited?

California publishes this. The problem has never been secrecy — it is that the record lives in a licensing database designed for regulators, keyed on a facility number most families do not have.

What the record contains

• Every visit state licensing has made, by category and date.
• Type A and Type B citations, with the state's own totals.
• Every complaint allegation investigated, and whether it was substantiated, unsubstantiated, inconclusive or unfounded.
• The licensee — the legal entity that holds the licence — and the administrator on record.
• What the licence permits: capacity, and whether non-ambulatory, bedridden or hospice residents may be accepted.

The five questions worth asking of any record

• How long has this licence been held? A high count on a twenty-year-old licence reads differently from the same count on a three-year-old one.
• Were the citations from complaints, or from routine inspections? A citation found at a routine visit was not prompted by anyone raising an alarm.
• How many complaint allegations were substantiated, against how many were investigated? Complaints get filed for many reasons; substantiation is the state agreeing.
• When was the last visit? A long silence is not the same as a clean record.
• Is the licensee the same entity as the brand on the sign? Frequently it is not.

What the record will not tell you

Whether the staff are kind. Whether the food is edible. Whether your mother will be happy there. The record is a floor, not a recommendation — it tells you what the state found, and it is the part nobody hands you on a tour.