Insights·Healthcare·November 2026
Long-term care staffing
Staffing shows up in the star rating
Nursing homes that are short of staff do not have to say so. Federal data already does.
CMS publishes a staffing rating for every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home on Care Compare, built from the facility's own payroll-based staffing data. It also publishes the deficiencies inspectors cite, including the specific tags for insufficient nursing staff and missing registered nurse coverage.
A one- or two-star staffing rating is not a guess about need. It is a public, recent measure that the facility is running thin, and it affects how families, referral sources and regulators see the home.
When a survey finds a staffing deficiency, the facility has to submit a plan of correction, generally within 10 calendar days of receiving the statement of deficiencies. That is the moment an administrator is most open to a staffing partner who can actually fill shifts.
The difficulty is on the supply side. Searches for staffing agencies return home-care companies and the nursing homes themselves. The agencies that fit are the ones licensed in the state, placing nurses and aides in long-term care, with capacity in the facility's area.
- In Ohio alone, more than 500 nursing homes carried a one- or two-star staffing rating on Care Compare in our November 2026 review.
- Staffing-related deficiency tags such as F725 (sufficient nursing staff) and F727 (RN and director of nursing coverage) are published with survey dates.
- State facility records list the administrator for every licensed home, so the decision-maker is identifiable.