How we build this site
Where the data comes from
Everything comes from the nursing home datasets in the CMS Provider Data Catalog (data.cms.gov), which also feed Medicare's Care Compare: Provider Information, Health Deficiencies, Penalties, Survey Summary, Fire Safety Deficiencies, State and US Averages, and the Citation Code Look-up. The current files were processed by CMS on Sep 1, 2026; CMS lists the next update for Oct 28, 2026. We download the full public files each month, keep a dated copy, and rebuild the site.
The data covers nursing homes certified by Medicare or Medicaid. It does not cover assisted living or memory care communities that are licensed only by the state.
What we copy, and what we count
- Copied as published: names, addresses, star ratings, staffing figures, each deficiency's inspection date, tag number, CMS description, severity letter, correction status and date, dispute flags, and each fine or payment denial. We change capitalization of all-caps names and cities and nothing else. CMS stores names in up to 50 characters, so some long names end mid-word; we show them as published.
- Counted by us: deficiencies per inspection cycle and in total, the highest severity, how many separate inspections cited the same tag, fine totals, and comparisons with Texas medians, city and chain figures. These are simple counts from the CMS rows.
- Written by us: the plain-English tag explanations and visit questions, built from the CMS description and the federal regulation. The CMS wording is always shown next to ours.
Inspection cycles and the star rating
CMS groups inspections into cycles: a standard inspection plus the complaint and infection-control inspections that go with it. Our counts cover the three most recent cycles in the data, the same window as the Health Deficiencies file. CMS's health inspection star rating uses a weighted score with different rules, so our counts and the stars will not always move together. We do not create our own rating.
"Immediate jeopardy" lists use CMS severity letters J, K and L. We separate citations from the 12 months before the data's processing date that are not recorded as past non-compliance, because past non-compliance means the home had already found and fixed the problem before inspectors arrived.
How we check it
- Deficiencies per home per inspection cycle match CMS's own Survey Summary file for 3,513 of 3,513 home-cycles; fire safety counts match for 3,513 of 3,513.
- Fine totals, fine counts and payment denials match the Provider Information summary fields for 1,177 of 1,177 homes.
- Every list's count is recomputed straight from the raw files and compared with what the site shows.
- Each month's download must pass checks before anything is published: no large drop in rows compared with the previous month, no dates after the processing date, and every citation linked to a known home. If a check fails, the old pages stay up.
What we do not do
- We do not rate, rank for quality, or recommend nursing homes, and we take no money from them.
- We do not collect reviews, run referral forms, or pass your details to anyone.
- We do not remove public inspection records on request. When CMS changes or removes a record, our next update reflects it.
Questions or a possible error? Corrections and contact.