How are nursing homes in Michigan inspected?
Michigan licenses nursing homes under Part 217 of the Public Health Code, and LARA's Bureau of Survey and Certification carries out the federal inspections -- routine surveys and complaint investigations -- for homes certified by Medicare and Medicaid.
Last verified: October 2026The results feed Medicare's Care Compare site, which is where the star ratings, the inspection citations and the staffing numbers on our nursing home pages come from.
What do Care Compare star ratings measure?
Care Compare gives each certified nursing home an overall rating of one to five stars built from three parts: health inspections, staffing and quality measures.
The 49 certified homes in our five counties break down like this:
| Overall rating | Homes |
|---|---|
| 5 stars | 17 |
| 4 stars | 7 |
| 3 stars | 9 |
| 2 stars | 5 |
| 1 stars | 11 |
The health inspection star weighs most heavily. Staffing compares reported nursing hours with what residents' needs predict. Quality measures come from resident assessments and claims, split into short-stay and long-stay.
What do deficiency tags and scope-and-severity letters mean?
Each citation is a federal tag number (F-tags such as F0689 for accidents or F0880 for infection control) with a letter from A to L: letters later in the alphabet mean more residents affected or more serious harm.
Letters A to C are isolated to widespread with no actual harm and minimal potential; D to F, potential for more than minimal harm; G to I, actual harm; J to L, immediate jeopardy. A home with ten D-level paperwork tags is a different risk from one with a single G-level fall injury. Our nursing home profiles list each tag with its letter.
What are Special Focus Facilities and the abuse icon?
CMS places a small number of homes with a persistent record of serious problems in its Special Focus Facility program or on its candidate list, and shows an abuse icon on homes cited for abuse; 2 homes in our area are on the candidate list and 5 carry the icon.
Both flags are reasons to dig, not automatic disqualifiers -- ownership and leadership change, and a home can improve quickly. Ask what happened, who the administrator is now, and what the most recent inspection found.
How should families use Care Compare when choosing a West Michigan nursing home?
Look at the health inspection star first, then staffing, then the citation list for the latest survey; a four-star home with a recent G-level citation deserves a question.
Our nursing home directory shows all three stars and the latest inspection for every certified home.
