Special Focus Facility (SFF)
Definition: A nursing home that CMS has identified as having a history of serious quality issues and placed on a program of increased oversight, including surveys every 6 months and progressive enforcement for continued noncompliance.
In Practice
The SFF program targets the nation's poorest-performing nursing homes. Facilities are selected based on a scoring methodology that considers the number, scope, severity, and types of deficiencies over a three-year period. SFFs that do not improve face escalating penalties up to termination. CMS publishes a list of current SFFs quarterly.