From CNN Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- How would you feel if you discovered your loved one died in a nursing home from starvation, dehydration or bed sores?

That's what private investigator Dina Rasor found in California.

"From '86 to '93, and that's the earliest we could get the death records of California nursing homes, we came up with around 22,000 deaths," said Rasor. "We're shocked."

A new report from Congress' General Accounting Office confirms abuse and neglect is rampant in California nursing homes.

One-third of California nursing homes were cited for serious violations that caused death or put patients in danger. Another third were cited for violations that could cause harm.

Last fall at Willow Tree, a private nursing center near San Francisco, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) found a lack of nursing services and proper medical equipment in patient rooms, overdoses of patient medication and insufficient food and water.

Willow Tree Operations Director Christopher Christensen said the various abuses were not consistent.

"The various personalities you have in a skilled nursing facility with the number of employees that are here, we could have a blip here and a blip there," Christensen said.

President Clinton and some legislators are pushing for surprise inspections and toucher enforcement.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said he suspects poor nursing home care exists across the United States. He is holding hearings on the matter this week.

"One of the results I hope from our hearing will be that HCFA gets on the stick and does its job, and its job obviously is to protect the vulnerable," Grassley said.

The senator also plans to address the issue of money at the hearing and whether nursing homes are getting enough to provide good care or if taxpayers need to give more.

Although Medicare and Medicaid foot the bill for most nursing home residents, some homes say that doesn't cover their costs. At the same time, there's a boom in the for-profit nursing home business nationwide.