All 12 Medicare-certified nursing homes in Santa Monica,
side by side on the things that separate them: how many nursing hours each resident gets, how much of the
staff leaves each year, and what inspectors found on their last visit.
Pacific Post Acute runs 49 beds in Santa Monica under limited-liability, for-profit ownership, and the direct-care hours show it: 4.63 per resident day, roughly a fifth more than the national average, with turnover at 34.6% against a national 45.8%. Weekend staffing dips about 12% below its own weekday level, so ask how that plays out on Saturdays. The current record carries 42 deficiencies, none at harm or jeopardy level, two tied to abuse. The last inspection was April 3, 2026, so the picture is recent. Quality measures score well; staffing scores mid-range despite the hours.
Santa Monica Health Care Center runs on 4.64 nurse hours per resident day, roughly 20% more than the national average, and its staff turnover of 37.1% beats the national figure of 45.8%, real signs of a stable floor. Weekend staffing dips about 10% below weekday levels, which matters if your family visits on Saturdays or Sundays. The trouble sits in the inspection record: 38 deficiencies, three of them serious enough to put residents in harm's way. The last survey was April 2025, so the picture is current, not stale. For-profit partnership ownership and that deficiency count are what pull the grade down despite solid staffing.
Sunset Park Healthcare runs 44 beds in Santa Monica under for-profit LLC ownership. Nurse staffing sits at 4.63 hours per resident day, about 20% above the national average, and the 30.2% turnover rate is notably lower than the 45.8% typical elsewhere. Weekend coverage, though, runs roughly 13% thinner than weekdays. The health inspection record is a different story: 58 deficiencies on file, one at harm or jeopardy level, and seven tied to abuse. The last inspection was in May 2025. Quality measures rate well, but the inspection history remains the concern a family would want to weigh when deciding.
Ocean Park Healthcare runs a small 41-bed building in Santa Monica, and the staffing numbers are its strongest feature: 4.33 nurse hours per resident day, roughly 12% above the national average, with turnover at 35.4% compared to 45.8% nationally. Weekend coverage dips about 8% below weekday levels, which is common but worth knowing if your family visits on Saturdays. The concern is the inspection record, 58 deficiencies, including one at the harm level and six flagged as abuse-related, with a 2/5 health inspection rating. One fine totaling $12,735 has been levied, and the last inspection was in May 2025. For-profit LLC ownership.
Ocean Pointe's staffing is the strongest part of its case: 4.57 nurse hours per resident day, well above the national average, and turnover of 31.6% that's meaningfully better than the 45.8% norm, that kind of retention usually means a stable, familiar crew, though weekend coverage does thin out about 13% below weekdays. The trouble is everything else. The current inspection record carries 57 deficiencies, including four tied to abuse and two serious enough to put residents in harm's way, with a $55,450 fine attached and the most recent look coming in March 2025. Solid bedside hours can't offset an inspection history that looks like this, that gap is what drags the overall picture down.
Fireside Health Care Center runs 4.26 nurse hours per resident day, about 10% above the national average of 3.86, and its staff turnover of 34.3% is meaningfully better than the 45.8% national figure, a sign the workforce here is more stable than at many homes. The catch is consistency: weekend staffing drops roughly 10% below its own weekday level, and the record shows 61 deficiencies, including four tied to abuse, though none reached the harm or jeopardy level. A single fine of $97,670 is on file, and the most recent inspection was January 23, 2026. For-profit corporate ownership. Strong quality measure scores and solid staffing hours, but the inspection history has real weight.
Berkley East Healthcare Center runs 207 certified beds in Santa Monica under for-profit LLC ownership, and the staffing numbers are genuinely above average, 4.80 nurse hours per resident day against a national 3.86. That's the good news, and it's real. The rest is harder to square: 112 deficiencies on the current record, including 7 at harm or jeopardy level and 8 tied to abuse, plus two fines totaling $58,205. A 1-out-of-5 inspection rating sits alongside a 5-out-of-5 quality measure score, which tells you the two systems are measuring very different things. Staff turnover, at 44.1%, is roughly in line with the national 45.8%. Weekend staffing dips about 6% below weekday levels.
Brentwood Health Care Center sits in Santa Monica with 59 certified beds under for-profit LLC ownership. The nurse staffing number is genuinely high, 5.40 hours per resident day, roughly 40% above the national average, though weekends dip about 16% below what the home staffs during the week, so coverage isn't perfectly even. Turnover lands at 46.5%, essentially the national rate, meaning this isn't a stable long-tenured crew. The bigger concern is the inspection record: 49 deficiencies, including one tied to abuse, with a 3/5 health inspection rating despite a recent December 2025 survey. Strong daily staffing is doing real work here, but the deficiency history is what pulls the overall picture down.
Berkley West runs about 4.70 nurse hours per resident per day, roughly 22% above the national average, and weekends dip about 13% below its own weekday staffing. That helps explain the staffing rating, but the inspection record pulls the other way: 68 deficiencies on file, including one at the harm or jeopardy level and three tied to abuse, plus a single $101,046 fine. Ownership is for-profit corporate, and turnover sits at 54.7% against a national 45.8%, so aides and nurses are cycling through faster than average. The quality measure score looks strong at 5/5, but that reflects resident care data, not how the building is run or inspected.
Good Shepherd Health Care Center of Santa Monica is a 48-bed for-profit home where the clinical outcomes look strong but the hands-on care doesn't match. Its quality measure rating sits at the top of the scale, yet staffing lands at the very bottom, meaning the numbers families care about most, like how often residents are bathed or helped to the bathroom, depend on a thin crew. The inspection record backs that up: 48 deficiencies, including one causing actual harm and two tied to abuse, with a $8,424 fine and a February 2026 inspection that's recent enough to still reflect current conditions. A corporation owns it, so decisions about staffing levels get made somewhere other than Santa Monica.
Beachwood Post-Acute & Rehab has real staffing going for it: 4.68 nurse hours per resident per day, roughly a fifth above the national average, and turnover at 30.5% is well below the 45.8% norm, a sign people stay. Weekends dip about 9% from weekday coverage, but that's the least of it. The inspection record is the problem: 118 deficiencies, five at harm or jeopardy level, 11 abuse-related, and two fines totaling $177,718. The most recent inspection was June 27, 2025, so this isn't stale history. For-profit LLC ownership, 227 beds. Staffing can't offset that deficiency count, ask pointed questions about the abuse citations before considering this one.
Santa Monica Rehabilitation Center has 170 deficiencies on its current record, including 18 tied to abuse and seven at the level where residents were actually harmed or put in immediate jeopardy. That record, plus four fines totaling $156,799, is why CMS has placed it in the Special Focus Facility program, a designation reserved for the homes with the worst sustained inspection histories. Staffing looks decent on paper at 4.02 nurse hours per resident day, slightly above the national average, but weekends run about 11% thinner than weekdays and turnover sits at 55.8% against a 45.8% national rate. High turnover and a one-star inspection rating mean the people caring for residents are often new and the oversight has been failing.