Healthcare Insights
Reviewing skilled nursing facility quality scores
Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) help patients with short and long-term inpatient stays for post-surgery recovery, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and transitional care from hospitals. Similar to hospital quality metrics, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) publishes star ratings for skilled nursing facilities.
What is included in CMS SNF ratings?
The overall quality rating for SNFs is on a 1-to 5-star scale, and combines results from ratings for:
- Health inspections
- Staffing
- Quality measures
The quality measures include numerous metrics on the health of both short-term and long-term SNF patients that includes tracking of areas such as:
- Number of hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
- Percentage of residents with re-hospitalizations
- Percentage of residents with outpatient emergency visits
- Percentage of residents who received flu or pneumonia shots
- Percentage of residents with pressure ulcers
- Percentage of residents receiving antipsychotic medication
- Percentage of residents experiencing falls
What is the average SNF quality score?
We reviewed quality data from the Definitive Healthcare LongTermCareView product for more than 14,500 SNFs in the U.S. and calculated the overall SNF average quality score to be 2.9 stars out of five. This data is sourced from CMS nursing home data, also known as Nursing Home Compare, and is aggregated from the most recent 12-month interval tracked in our database.
The average score for the three main quality ratings are as follows:
- Health inspections: 2.8 stars
- Staffing: 2.6 stars
- Quality measures: 3.6 stars
What state has the highest rated skilled nursing facilities?
SNFs in Alaska and Hawaii have the highest average overall star ratings at 3.6.
Idaho has the highest average health inspection rating of 3.5. Alaska’s average staff rating of 4.4 places it at the top. And Hawaii has the highest SNF quality score of 4.8. All three of the top SNF states have less than 80 SNFs rated.
What state has the lowest rated skilled nursing facilities?
The average overall rating for SNFs in Louisiana is 2.3, the lowest among states. Wyoming has a health inspection rating of 2.6 on average. Texas has an average 1.5 staffing rating for its nearly 1,200 SNFs. SNFs in Mississippi have an average quality rating of 2.1. Many states in the south have some of the least healthy populations, which could contribute to the complexity of patient cases at these facilities.
| State | Number of SNFs with ratings | Average overall rating | Average health inspection rating | Average staffing rating | Average quality rating | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 223 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 3.4 | Explore |
| Alaska | 19 | 3.6 | 2.8 | 4.4 | 4.1 | Explore |
| Arizona | 140 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 4.3 | Explore |
| Arkansas | 215 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 3.5 | Explore |
| California | 1126 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 4.4 | Explore |
| Colorado | 207 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.9 | Explore |
| Connecticut | 201 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.6 | Explore |
| Delaware | 41 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 4.0 | 4.2 | Explore |
| District of Columbia | 16 | 3.5 | 2.6 | 3.6 | 4.6 | Explore |
| Florida | 697 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.9 | Explore |
| Georgia | 355 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 2.9 | Explore |
| Hawaii | 42 | 3.6 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 4.8 | Explore |
| Idaho | 79 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 4.2 | Explore |
| Illinois | 672 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 3.1 | Explore |
| Indiana | 517 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 3.8 | Explore |
| Iowa | 394 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 3.3 | Explore |
| Kansas | 274 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 3.0 | Explore |
| Kentucky | 275 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 2.5 | 2.9 | Explore |
| Louisiana | 267 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 1.8 | 2.4 | Explore |
| Maine | 87 | 3.1 | 2.7 | 3.8 | 3.6 | Explore |
| Maryland | 223 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 3.7 | Explore |
| Massachusetts | 351 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 3.6 | Explore |
| Michigan | 424 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 3.9 | Explore |
| Minnesota | 341 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 | Explore |
| Mississippi | 181 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 2.1 | Explore |
| Missouri | 494 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 3.0 | Explore |
| Montana | 59 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 3.6 | Explore |
| Nebraska | 174 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 3.5 | Explore |
| Nevada | 63 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 4.0 | Explore |
| New Hampshire | 70 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 3.2 | 3.5 | Explore |
| New Jersey | 348 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 4.3 | Explore |
| New Mexico | 66 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 3.3 | Explore |
| New York | 601 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.2 | 4.0 | Explore |
| North Carolina | 416 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 3.2 | Explore |
| North Dakota | 76 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 4.2 | 3.4 | Explore |
| Ohio | 938 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 3.9 | Explore |
| Oklahoma | 285 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.4 | 3.0 | Explore |
| Oregon | 120 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 3.7 | Explore |
| Pennsylvania | 665 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 3.7 | Explore |
| Rhode Island | 75 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 3.4 | Explore |
| South Carolina | 187 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 3.3 | Explore |
| South Dakota | 84 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 3.2 | Explore |
| Tennessee | 302 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 3.5 | Explore |
| Texas | 1169 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 3.5 | Explore |
| Utah | 92 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 4.4 | Explore |
| Vermont | 35 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 3.2 | Explore |
| Virginia | 278 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 3.5 | Explore |
| Washington | 192 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 3.2 | 4.1 | Explore |
| West Virginia | 116 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 2.6 | Explore |
| Wisconsin | 327 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 3.6 | Explore |
| Wyoming | 31 | 2.7 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 3.6 | Explore |
Fig. 1. Data is from the Definitive Healthcare LongTermCareView product and sourced from CMS. Accessed June 2023.
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