Where can I find inspection reports for Alabama assisted living?
ADPH posts statements of deficiencies and plans of correction for assisted living, memory care and other licensed facilities in its online Health Care Facilities Deficiencies application, searchable by facility type, county and name.
The rule that governs disclosure, 420-5-4-.01(4)(b), says statements of deficiencies from on-site inspections and the plans of correction are public, while other information ADPH gathers stays confidential. Facilities must also post their state inspection reports and corrective action plans from the past 24 months in a prominent place inside the building, so you can read them on a tour.
For the 60 assisted living and specialty care licenses in our seven counties, ADPH's site lists posted survey reports for 47; the newest posted report is a median of 2.4 years old.
What is a deficiency tag on an Alabama survey?
A tag is the code ADPH uses for each rule it found violated, such as A604 for an assisted living care-of-residents rule; each tag on the form is followed by the rule number, the rule text and the surveyor's findings.
Tags beginning with A in assisted living reports map to sections of chapter 420-5-4: .03 administration, .04 personnel, .05 records, .06 care of residents, .07 food service, .08 physical facilities, .09 laundry, .10 sanitation, .11 fire and safety and .12 physical environment. Specialty care reports cite the matching sections of chapter 420-5-20. The tag number tells you the topic, not the severity; read the findings to see whether the problem was a missing signature or a resident who was harmed.
What do the first lines of an ADPH survey report tell me?
The initial comments under tag A 000 state the survey date, whether it was a licensure, complaint or follow-up survey, the licensed bed count, the census that day, and how many complaints were investigated and whether they were substantiated.
Census versus beds tells you how full the building was. Complaint numbers tell you whether families or staff have been calling ADPH. On our facility pages we summarize those first lines and list the tags, with a link to the full PDF on ADPH's site.
What should I make of a report with many tags?
Count matters less than content: compare the number of tags with the local median, then read whether findings involved resident harm, medication errors, staffing or paperwork, and check the plan of correction and any follow-up survey that found the problems fixed.
Ask the administrator to walk you through the most recent report. A good answer names what went wrong, what changed and who monitors it now. A defensive answer, or a claim that the report is not available, is itself information: the rules require it to be posted.
At a glance
| An ADPH statement of deficiencies shows | It does not show | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Which rules were violated on a given survey | A grade or star rating |
| Context | Beds, census and complaints investigated that day | Prices or availability |
| Response | The facility's plan of correction | Whether every fix stuck months later |
| Coverage | Surveys with deficiencies (and some without) | Every visit ADPH ever made |
Sources: Ala. Admin. Code chapters 420-5-4, 420-5-10 and 420-5-20; ADPH Bureau of Health Provider Standards; ADPH Health Care Facilities Directory and Deficiencies applications; Alabama DHR Adult Protective Services. See our editorial standards.
