How it works
1. Inspectors visit every facility
Every nursing home certified for Medicare or Medicaid (about 15,000 nationwide) is inspected by state surveyors, typically about once a year plus whenever a complaint is investigated. Inspectors write up every violation as a “citation” with an official severity level, from paperwork-level issues up to immediate jeopardy, which means a resident was at risk of serious injury or death.
2. The federal government publishes the results
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes every citation, every fine, facility ownership records, and its own Five-Star ratings. Separately, facilities' payroll systems report the actual hours nurses worked every single day: not estimates, payroll. It is all public, but it is written for regulators, not families.
3. We translate it
NursingHomeLens gathers those records for each facility and puts them in plain English: what inspectors found and whether it was corrected, how staffing compares with the state median, how weekends compare with weekdays, what fines were paid, and who owns the facility, including how that owner's other facilities are rated by CMS. We add analysis and translation. We never add opinions: no rankings, no recommendations, no medical advice.
Data sources and freshness
We refresh our data nightly. CMS publishes inspection updates monthly and payroll-based staffing quarterly, so “Data as of” on each facility page tells you exactly which CMS release you're reading. Our sources:
- Provider Information (CMS star ratings, beds, ownership type, Special Focus status)
- Health Deficiencies (every inspection citation)
- Penalties (fines and payment denials)
- Ownership (owners, officers, and chains)
- CMS Payroll-Based Journal (data.cms.gov): daily nurse staffing from payroll systems
Start with the facility you're considering
Search by name, or if you're weighing more than one option, see how the comparison report works.