Methodology · score_v1
How the InspectedCare Score is built
The InspectedCare Score is computed from official Florida assisted living inspection records: state deficiency classifications across four severity classes. One published formula, versioned and frozen, applied to every licensed facility. This page is the full specification.
Inputs
Each facility’s score is built from its official record: counts of inspection deficiencies by severity class (Class 1 through Class 4), licensed bed capacity, and license status. Class 1 is the most severe class; Class 4 the least. The counts are the state’s published aggregate for the facility.
Severity weighting
Deficiencies are weighted by severity class and summed into a weighted total. More severe classes carry more weight:
| Severity class | Weight |
|---|---|
| Class 1 | 10 |
| Class 2 | 5 |
| Class 3 | 2 |
| Class 4 | 1 |
weighted deficiencies = 10 × Class 1 + 5 × Class 2 + 2 × Class 3 + 1 × Class 4.
Per-bed rate with shrinkage
The weighted total is expressed as a rate per licensed bed, so a large facility and a small one are measured on the same scale. Small facilities have few beds, so a raw per-bed rate swings hard on a single deficiency. The score corrects this with shrinkage: the rate is blended toward the facility’s size-band cohort norm, controlled by a fixed damping constant (k = 5). A tiny facility’s rate is pulled toward its cohort until its own record carries enough weight to move it.
rate = (weighted deficiencies + k × cohort prior) / (licensed beds + k), with k = 5 and the cohort prior set from each size band.
Size-band cohorts
Facilities are grouped into four size bands - 1-6, 7-16, 17-49, and 50+ licensed beds - because per-bed deficiency density differs structurally by size. Comparing a six-bed residential home to a 150-bed community on one bar is not the fair comparison; comparing each facility to homes of its own size is. The score is a facility’s percentile within its size band, from 0 to 100, where a higher score reflects a lower cohort-relative deficiency rate. The number is presented as context - “cleaner record than X% of same-size Florida homes” - and the published tier is the headline.
Tiers
Every facility carries a published tier that describes its inspection record. The top tier is a clean record; the remaining tiers use fixed thresholds on the shrinkage-adjusted per-bed rate, set once and frozen.
- Clean deficiency record - no weighted deficiencies on the record.
- Low deficiency record - rate at or below the band’s low threshold.
- Moderate deficiency record - rate above low, at or below the band’s moderate threshold.
- Elevated deficiency record - rate above the band’s moderate threshold.
The tier labels describe the inspection record only. The thresholds are band-specific and are frozen constants of score_v1:
| Size band | Low (rate ≤) | Moderate (rate ≤) |
|---|---|---|
| 1-6 beds | 2.438 | 4.097 |
| 7-16 beds | 1.354 | 2.545 |
| 17-49 beds | 0.45 | 1.263 |
| 50+ beds | 0.178 | 0.46 |
Frozen forward
The thresholds are fixed constants of score_v1, not rolling percentiles. Future data refreshes judge every facility against these same fixed bars. As the field of facilities improves, more of them clear a bar and tier shares shift - that movement is the signal, measured against a stable standard rather than a moving rank. The thresholds change only by a published version bump.
The insufficient-history standard
InspectedCare does not score facilities without sufficient official inspection history. A facility with no inspection-derived signal on the state record - no deficiencies, complaints, sanctions, or fines - carries an Insufficient inspection history standard and no score. The score is earned from the record; where the record is empty, the standard says so rather than assigning a value.
Facilities whose license is inactive on the state record carry an Inactive license standard and are not scored. InspectedCare scores active licensed assisted living facilities.
Data freshness
The severity-class deficiency counts are the score-driving input. This release is bound to the official-record capture of 2026-07-21: the score reflects the state record as of that date. A facility scored on inspection data with a capture date says so; the capture date travels with the score.
Provenance
Every score links its source. Each facility’s provenance link resolves to its FloridaHealthFinder facility profile, keyed by the facility’s state license identifier. A score renders with its record link, or it does not render.
Versioning
This methodology is score_v1. The version string travels with every score on the site. The formula, weights, damping constant, size bands, and tier thresholds are frozen at this version and change only by a published version bump.