How to Verify a Facility's License and Inspection Record
Two free public tools measure two different things — use both before you schedule a tour.
New York's Department of Health, through its Division of Adult Care Facility/Assisted Living Surveillance, licenses and inspects senior care communities under Public Health Law Article 46-B (Assisted Living Residences) and Public Health Law Article 7 (Adult Care Facilities), with detailed rules in 18 NYCRR Parts 487, 488, and 490 and 10 NYCRR Part 1001. You don't need to read the regulations to check a specific building — the state publishes two free, public lookup tools that do the work for you.
NYS Health Profiles — Adult Care Facility search
Go to profiles.health.ny.gov/acf and search by facility name, county, or service type. Each result links to that facility's current certification/license status and its inspection and survey history — this is New York's own regulator record, not a third-party aggregator's summary of it. For the full explanation of what New York's ACF/ALR/EALR/SNALR licensing layers actually mean, see how New York licenses assisted living →.
Medicare Care Compare
For nursing homes specifically, cross-check Medicare Care Compare, a federal tool that scores nursing homes on a 1-to-5 star scale across health inspections, staffing levels, and quality measures. New York does not run a separate star-rating tool for assisted living or adult care facilities generally — Care Compare's star ratings apply to nursing homes only.
Why check both — and why reviews aren't enough
Online reviews and New York's regulatory inspection record measure different things. Reviews tend to reflect a family's experience with staff friendliness, food, and communication — real and useful, but not the same as regulatory compliance. A community can have glowing reviews and open licensing correction orders logged in NYS Health Profiles at the same time. None of the three sources — reviews, NYS Health Profiles, and (for nursing homes) Medicare Care Compare — gives the full picture alone. The most reliable approach is to check all three before touring, then use the tour itself to ask directly about anything that gave you pause.
Filing a complaint
A facility-compliance complaint (unsafe conditions, understaffing, a licensing violation) goes through NYS DOH's Adult Care Facility oversight process — separate from Adult Protective Services, which handles suspected abuse or neglect of a specific resident. NYS DOH's current complaint hotline number and hours were not independently confirmed during this site's research pass — verify the current number directly at health.ny.gov before calling it as if confirmed. If you're not sure which channel applies, the Region 15 Long Term Care Ombudsman can help direct you. Read the full explanation of the Ombudsman and APS →