A Rare Find: Very Few Good Secured Nursing Homes In California Have Available Beds For Low-Income Alzheimer’s Patients Who “Wander”

Published for the National Association of Social Workers - California E-News (January 2021)

By Jason Bloome

By 2050, more than 5 million Americans will be living with dementia and, of this group, 6 out of 10 people will eventually “wander”. Many of these “wanderers” will be low-income and when care at home is not possible, families will need to find an appropriate secured care home.

Finding a care home for a low-income senior who “wanders” when there is no family financial support is a difficult endeavor in California. The average cost for private paid care in a large assisted living home with a dementia unit or in a small 4-6 bed residential board and care home can range from $3,000-$5,000/month for a shared room, well beyond the budget of many families.

Currently, only one program, the Assisted Living Waiver, allows Medi-Cal to pay for assisted living homes. While only some of the participating large 100+ bed ALW providers have secured dementia units most of the small 4-6 bed board and care homes can accept “wanderers” due to their small physical size, alarms on the doors and high staff to resident ratios. Available slots for ALW is quite limited, however. As of December 2012, there were 5,100 people enrolled in the program with 4,513 on the waitlist. The wait time for an available ALW slot is 1-2 years for eligible participants coming from the community.

Most often low-income families looking for a care home for a “wanderer” are limited to finding a secured nursing home that accepts Medi-Cal: a difficult proposition when most counties have very few secured nursing homes, and of those homes, very few willing to accept Medi-Cal. The search is further complicated when many secured nursing homes are rated as having poor quality (e.g. two or fewer stars on the Medicare Compare website).

Before funding for calqualitycare.org was discontinued, families had an easy way to access a list of the secured nursing homes and their Medicare Compare ratings but the site lost funding earlier this year and is no longer accessible on the internet. A replacement site by the University of San Francisco, working in conjunction with calhospitalcompare.org, is expected to launch in mid-2021.

In the meantime, families wanting to research nursing homes that accept Medi-Cal and have secured units can obtain a partial list from the California Association of Health Facilities through the “Alzheimer’s bed” filter on their member search directory. Cross-referencing the filtered list with the ratings of the nursing homes on Medicare Compare will give families a list of homes to contact and information about the care quality.

Here is the list of secured or locked nursing homes for seniors who have dementia or alzheimer’s who “wander” from CAHF and their Medicare Compare ratings in a few Southern California counties (e.g. Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange counties) as of December 2020.   

In Los Angeles, out of 41 secured nursing homes, 17 are rated as “below average in quality” with a rating of two stars or less.  In San Bernardino County, out of 12 nursing homes, 6 have two stars or less.  In Riverside, out of 8 secured SNFs, 5 have two stars or less.   

Los Angeles County				City	Ratings
Alameda Care Center				Burbank	5
Alamitos Belmont Rehab Hospital				Long Beach	4
Alexandria Care Center				Los Angeles	1
Bay Crest Care Center				Torrance	1
Broadway By the Sea				Long Beach	3
Broadway Health Care Center				Glendale	5
Brookdale Northridge				Northridge	5
California Healthcare and Rehab Center				Van Nuys	3
Canyon Vista				Canoga Park	4
Clearview Convalescent Center				Gardena	5
Colonial Gardens Nursing Home				Pico Rivera	1
Edgewood Skilled Nursing Center				Long Beach	3
Eisenberg Village				Reseda	5
Garden Crest Rehab Center				Los Angeles	4
Garden View Post Acute Rehab.				Baldwin Park	2
Huntington Drive Health and Rehab Center				Arcadia	2
Inland Valley Care and Rehab Center				Pomona	1
Las Flores Convalescent Hospital				Gardena	1
Lighthouse Health Care Center				Los Angeles	1
Mar Vista Health Care Center				Los Angeles	3
Montrose Health Care Center				Montrose	4
Panorama Gardens Nursing and Rehab.				Panorama City	4
Pasadena Park Healthcare Center				Pasadena	3
Ramona Nursing and Rehab.				El Monte	2
Santa Anita Convalescent				Santa Anita	2
Stoney Point Healthcare Center				Chatsworth	2
Sunny View Care Center				Alhambra	1
Two Palms Nursing Care				Pasadena	5
View Heights Convalescent Hospital				Los Angeles	5
Villa del Rio				Bell Gardens	2
West Hills Health and Rehab Center				West Hills	2
West Valley Post Acute				West Hills	2
Whittier Hills Health Care Center				Whittier	3
Windsor Convalescent Center of North Long Beach				Long Beach	3
Windsor Convalescent Center of Hawthorne				Hawthorne	3
Windsor Convalescent Center of Long Beach				Long Beach	1
Windsor Palms Care Center of Artesia				Artesia	1
Windsor Terrace Health Care Center				Van Nuys	1
Riverside
AltaVista				Riverside	2
Arlington Gardens				Riverside	5
Brookdale Rancho Mirage				Rancho Mirage	2
Community Care on Palm				Riverside	3
Highlands Springs Care Center				Beaumont	2
Manor Care Hemet				Hemet	2
Riverwalk Post Acute				Riverside	1
Vista Pacific Convalescent				Riverside	5
San Bernardino
Brookside Healthcare Center				Redlands	4
Calimesa Post Acute				Yucaipa	1
Hertitage Park SNF				Upland	5
Highland Care Center of Redlands				Redlands	5
Highland Palms Care Center				Highland	4
Linda Valley Care Center				Loma Linda	4
Mill Creek Post Acute				Mentone	3
Las Colina Post Acute				Ontario	2
Redland Health Care Center				Redlands	4
Terracina Post Acute				Redlands	1
Upland Rehab Center				Upland	4
Waterman Canyon Post Acute				San Bernardino	4
Orange County
Alamitos West Health and Rehab				Los Alamitos	5
Alta Gardens Care Center				Garden Grove	5
Beach Side Nursing Center				Huntington Beach, CA	5
Buena Vista Care Center				Anaheim, CA	4
Capistrano Beach Care Center				Capistrano Beach, CA	3
Country Villa Plaza Nursing				Santa Ana, CA	1
Coventry Court Health Center				Anaheim, CA	5
Extended Care Hospital of Westminster				Westminster, CA	3
Mainplace Post Acute				Orange, CA	3
Mesa Verde Post Acute Care Center				Costa Mesa, CA	2
Mission Palms Healthcare Center				Westminster, CA	5
Newport Bay Hospital				Newport Beach, CA	5
South Coast Post Acute				Santa Ana, CA	5
St. Edna Post Acute				Santa Ana, CA	3
Victoria Healthcare and Rehab.				Costa Mesa, CA	5