Family checklist

Questions to ask before choosing a nursing home

A plain-English checklist for families comparing nursing homes, inspection results, ownership, staffing, care planning, and resident safety.

Search nursing homes See sample report

Start with care, staffing, and communication

The best visit questions are specific enough that the facility can answer with process, names, and examples, not only general promises.

Who is responsible for care-plan updates and family calls after a change in condition?
How many agency or temporary staff are used on evenings, weekends, and holidays?
How are falls, medication errors, wounds, infections, and hospital transfers reviewed with families?

Ask about records that appear in public data

Federal data can show ratings, deficiencies, penalties, ownership, and some quality-measure or staffing signals. Families should ask how the facility explains and corrected any issue that appears in the record.

Common questions

Should I rely only on a federal star rating?

No. A star rating is useful, but it should be reviewed with inspection deficiencies, penalties, ownership, staffing, quality measures, and current facility answers.

What should I ask if a facility has no penalties?

Ask what datasets were checked, whether state complaints or inspection reports exist outside the federal penalty table, and how recent the available data is.

More nursing home research guides

Inspection guideHow to read nursing home inspection reportsLearn how deficiencies, survey dates, scope/severity codes, correction status, and repeat findings fit into a nursing home review.Penalty guideWhat nursing home penalties meanUnderstand federal nursing home fines, payment denials, penalty dates, and how to ask why a facility may have paid a fine.Ownership guideNursing home ownership explainedWhy ownership type, control records, operator roles, chain affiliation, and management changes matter when reviewing a nursing home.Comparison guideHow to compare nursing homes near youA practical way to compare nursing homes by distance, ratings, deficiencies, penalties, beds, ownership, and report value.