How to Find the Federal Nursing Home Ratings

There are more than 16,000 nursing homes in the United States, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Medicare has made nursing home shopping more efficient for the elderly and their families by compiling quality data on our nation's nursing homes. The Five-Star Quality Rating System was instituted as a result of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1987 as well as activism by consumer and professional coalition groups that desire quality improvements in the nursing home industry.

Instructions

• 1

  Visit Medicare's website to obtain federal ratings for nursing homes. The website contains resources by location as of December 2010.

• 2

  Enter your search criteria. You may search for nursing homes by name, city, county, state or zip code.

• 3

  Narrow your list of nursing homes. You can select homes within a retirement community, homes within a hospital, and homes with Resident and Family Councils.

• 4

  Sort your list by various options such as name, distance, overall rating, health inspections rating, staffing rating, quality measures rating, program participation rating, number of beds and type of ownership.

• 5

  Compare up to three nursing homes at a time. View detailed nursing home information. Listings contain statistics regarding health inspections, staffing, quality measures and fire safety inspections.