Online reviews and a facility's official state survey/inspection record measure different things -- reviews capture a family's subjective day-to-day experience, while a DQA survey documents whether the facility met specific licensing standards on its most recent inspection. Use both, but don't substitute one for the other.
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A community can have glowing reviews and still have an open, cited violation on its most recent DQA survey -- and the reverse is also possible, a facility with a clean survey record but a pattern of concerning reviews about staff turnover or responsiveness. Treat a strong review pattern as one useful signal among several, not as proof of regulatory compliance, and treat a clean survey record as proof of minimum standards met, not as proof of the day-to-day warmth or fit your family is looking for. The two data sources are complementary, and checking only one leaves a real blind spot.
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