The committee and IOM staff carried out several major activities during this study: convening meetings; gathering background information through commissioned papers and structured, systematic contacts with a diverse set of interest groups; conducting site visits to six states; and consulting with numerous groups across the country.

The committee adopted a policy on confidentiality to assure respondents that data collected during the course of the study would be reported in a manner that would not identify or attribute it to particular individuals or states. This policy was considered to be essential to protect study respondents and to enhance the validity of the data. State-specific information used by the committee that was in the public domain was not treated as confidential material.

The committee met four times for two-day or three-day meetings. At its first meeting, the committee heard a presentation from Virginia Fraser, Colorado state LTC ombudsman. At the committee’s second meeting, Colleen Galambos, of the Maryland Gerontological Association, reported on her research in Baltimore nursing facilities. Additionally, at this second meeting,