Nursing homes (skilled nursing facilities) are licensed and certified by DHSR's Nursing Home Licensure and Certification Section and are also surveyed under federal Medicare/Medicaid rules, so their inspection results, deficiencies, and CMS Five-Star Quality Rating are published on Medicare's Care Compare website (medicare.gov/care-compare) alongside the underlying survey (Form 2567) reports. You can cross-reference the same facility's NC license status through DHSR's Regulated Facilities search at info.ncdhhs.gov/dhsr/facilities/search.asp.
What this means in practice
Durham is home to some of the Triangle's most prominent skilled nursing options tied to the Duke Health system, and because nursing homes (unlike adult care homes) are certified under federal Medicare/Medicaid rules, their oversight data is far more standardized than what's available for assisted living. CMS Care Compare aggregates health inspections, staffing levels, and quality measures into the familiar one-to-five-star rating, letting a family compare a Durham nursing home against facilities in another state using the same scale. This is a meaningfully different — and more consumer-friendly — system than the one NC uses for adult care homes, so families should not assume the same search tool or rating logic applies once they move from comparing nursing homes to comparing assisted living or family care homes.
Related questions
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