Programs that establish and enforce health, safety and program standards for health care and mental health facilities, review applications for licenses, issue or deny licenses, inspect facilities for compliance with requirements and revoke licenses or bring disciplinary action for noncompliance. Included are programs that provide licensing for general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, home health agencies, personal care agencies, hospice facilities, employer/employee clinics, rehabilitation clinics, community clinics, surgical clinics, and chronic dialysis clinics.

Programs that link individuals who are in need of intermediate, secured or skilled nursing care with facilities that are appropriate to their needs and preferences.

Programs that publish information about health and residential care facilities (including hospitals, dialysis facilities, home health care agencies, nursing facilities and supportive housing for older adults and people with disabilities) that helps consumers compare the facilities in their area and choose the option that best meets their needs. Some programs limit their comparisons to treatment that is related to specific conditions, e.g., heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia.

The principal executive divisions of state government in the United States including state offices, departments, divisions, bureaus, boards and commissions, that are responsible, by law, for the management and control of public business and property.

Governing boards, advisory boards, commissions, committees and other groups that provide advice, guidance and, in some cases, formal oversight, for public and private organizations that are responsible for the provision of services to the community; that assess existing social conditions and problems and develop and assist in the implementation of specific strategies for meeting the human service needs of the community; and/or which assist community agencies and organizations to coordinate the provision of services in an efficient, nonduplicative way. Also included are entities that are composed of community agencies which have an established networking relationship that provides a collaborative approach to addressing specific identified community needs and problems.

Individuals who have recently been released from the hospital, are recovering from an illness or injury, have chronic illnesses or disabilities, or are frail elderly and require constant medical support, and who are residing in an intermediate care facility, a skilled nursing facility, a subacute care nursing facility or a special care inpatient unit.

The children, spouses, partners, friends or other relatives or significant others of people who are unable to care for themselves due to general frailty; illnesses, injuries or progressively debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or mental illness; or other incapacitating problems, whose own patterns of personal, social and familial coping have been significantly affected by interaction with and concern about the elderly individual.