Senior care around Baltimore, built on Maryland's own records

What is Baltimore Senior Advisor?

Baltimore Senior Advisor is a free referral and research service for families looking at assisted living, memory care, nursing homes and in-home care in the Baltimore area, built on Maryland's own licensing records rather than paid listings.

Every program on this site comes from the Office of Health Care Quality's licensee directories, the Maryland Health Care Commission's consumer guide and CMS Care Compare. Communities pay us a referral fee when a family we introduce moves in, which is how the service stays free -- and Maryland law requires us to tell you that, to register as a referrer and to refer only to licensed programs.

How much licensed assisted living is there around Baltimore?

OHCQ's directory lists 934 licensed assisted living programs with 13,633 beds across Baltimore City and the six counties we cover; 697 of them are small homes licensed for fewer than 10 residents and 103 report memory-care capacity.

What should Baltimore families check first?

Check three things before touring: the program's license and approved level of care, whether it has OHCQ approval for an Alzheimer's Special Care Unit if dementia is involved, and how the bill will be paid once private funds run low.

Maryland licenses every program for one of three levels of care; a resident whose needs exceed that level needs a waiver from OHCQ or a move. The Community Options Waiver has a registry and a wait, so families who may need Medicaid should call Maryland Access Point early.

How is this site organized?

Baltimore City is organized by ZIP code because its licensed assisted living is concentrated in a dozen ZIP codes of small homes; the counties are organized by town, and the directory lets you sort and filter every licensed program in one table.

Nursing homes each have a page with their official CMS ratings, latest inspection citations, staffing and fines. Guides explain Maryland's levels of care, Alzheimer's special care units, the Community Options Waiver, the Senior Assisted Living Subsidy and what care costs, and every cost or rule page shows the month it was last verified.

What does an advisor do, and what doesn't an advisor do?

An advisor narrows the field and handles logistics; an advisor does not replace your own check of the record.