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. Most families never see any of this.
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.