Nursing Home Compare Tool — Compare Medicare-Certified Facilities
Looking for the retired Medicare Nursing Home Compare tool? POCDesk's free compare tool lets you compare any Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities side by side using official CMS Health Deficiency data. View total deficiency counts, severity breakdowns, Immediate Jeopardy history, survey dates, correction rate, and repeat citations for multiple nursing homes at once — so families and compliance teams can make informed decisions.
How to Compare Nursing Homes Properly
A raw deficiency count is only the starting point. Read the numbers in context and weigh three things before drawing conclusions:
- Count in context — a large facility with many beds naturally has more surveyed care areas than a small one, so compare the pattern of deficiencies, not just the total.
- Severity over volume — one actual-harm (G–I) or Immediate Jeopardy (J–L) citation matters far more than several no-harm (A–F) tags. Always look at the scope-and-severity level, not only how many citations were issued.
- Recency and trend — a facility that had problems years ago but has been clean since is very different from one whose deficiencies are increasing. Check the trend over multiple survey cycles.
Nursing Home Compare, Care Compare & How POCDesk Relates
CMS retired the standalone Nursing Home Compare website and folded its data into Care Compare, the unified CMS site for comparing Medicare providers. POCDesk draws on the same underlying CMS Health Deficiency data but focuses specifically on survey and compliance detail — deficiency counts, severity breakdowns, repeat citations, and correction performance — presented side by side so you can quickly see how facilities differ.
Red Flags to Watch For
When comparing facilities, be cautious about any home with recent Immediate Jeopardy citations, a rising number of deficiencies across successive surveys, repeat citations of the same F-Tag (a sign that previous Plans of Correction did not hold), or a low correction rate. Repeat citations especially suggest that systemic problems were never truly fixed.
Questions to Ask on a Facility Tour
Use the data to prepare in-person questions: ask about staffing ratios and turnover, how the facility responded to its most recent citations, what its infection-control and falls-prevention programs look like, and how it involves families in care planning. Pairing the numbers with a visit gives the fullest picture.
Related Tools
- SNF Scorecard & Inspection Results
- Best Nursing Homes by State
- Nursing Home Survey Tracker
- State Compliance Benchmarks
- Skilled Nursing Near Me
- What Is Skilled Nursing Care?
Explore POCDesk — Free Nursing Home Compliance Tools
- SNF Scorecard — look up any facility's inspection record
- Nursing Home Compare Tool — side-by-side comparisons
- Skilled Nursing Near Me — find facilities by city & state
- Best Nursing Homes by State — ranked by inspection results
- Survey Tracker — recent CMS survey activity
- F-Tag Reference Guide — every CMS deficiency tag
- Plan of Correction (POC) Complete Guide
- Free AI POC Generator
- Plan of Correction Examples
- CMS Survey Preparation Guide
- SNF Compliance Guides
- What Is Skilled Nursing Care?
Official Sources
POCDesk analyzes official government data. Verify any facility's record or read the underlying regulations at these primary sources:
- Medicare.gov Care Compare — CMS's official nursing home comparison tool
- CMS Provider Data Catalog — the raw nursing home inspection & deficiency datasets
- CMS Nursing Home Certification & Compliance — enforcement policy and the Special Focus Facility program
- 42 CFR Part 483 (eCFR) — the federal requirements of participation behind every F-Tag
- National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center — free advocacy help for residents and families