The CMS and HHS have developed a new Five-Star Rating system that evaluates Nursing Home care.

According to the CMS website, the Five-Star Quality Rating System was created to help consumers, their families, and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily and help identify areas about which you may want to ask questions. This rating system is based on continued efforts as a result of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA ’87), a nursing home reform law, and more recent quality improvement campaigns such as the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes, a coalition of consumers, health care providers, and nursing home professionals.

Nursing home ratings are taken from the following three sources of data:

Health Inspections
Staffing
Quality Measures

More stars are better.

***** Much Above Avg.
**** Above Avg.
*** Average
** Below Avg.
* Much Below Avg.

Currently, 792 Illinois Nursing Homes have been evaluated under the system and can be researched on the CMS Website.

We provide a star rating for each of these three sources, in case some areas are more important to you than others. Then, these three ratings are combined to calculate an overall rating.

Why is this important?
Nursing homes vary in the quality of care and services they provide to their residents. Reviewing health inspection results, staffing data, and quality measure data are three important ways to measure nursing home quality. This information gives you a “snap shot” of the care individual nursing homes give.

One of the most important things to do is to visit the nursing homes you are considering. If possible, also contact your Long-Term Care Ombudsman or State Survey Agency before making a decision. Take a copy of the Nursing Home Checklist when you visit a nursing home and talk to the nursing home staff about the information on this website.