ElderCareCosts Research
https://www.eldercarecosts.com/press/data/deficiency-trends-by-year/
Preliminary data cut. Still in fact-checking.
This page is AI-assisted from structured sources by ElderCareCosts Research. It is not medical advice, not legal advice, and not expert-reviewed. Treat its numbers as provisional until every citation has been checked.
Data journalism · Deficiencies · ElderCareCosts Research
Nursing Home Health Deficiency Citation Trends by Year
Our database holds 429,518 nursing home health-deficiency citation rows with survey dates from 2018 through 2026. The peak year in this cut is 2024 with 121,928 citations.
What the numbers mean
Counts are item-level CMS health deficiency rows in provider_inspections, grouped by survey year.
Year-to-year changes can reflect survey volume, reporting windows, and ingest coverage, not only care quality.
Penalty / payment-denial rows are excluded when identifiable.
Chart
Health deficiency citations by survey year
Citation rows stored in our database for nursing homes, by survey year.
Unit: Citations
| Label | Citations |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 3,353 |
| 2019 | 13,783 |
| 2020 | 4,492 |
| 2021 | 14,638 |
| 2022 | 32,349 |
| 2023 | 86,432 |
| 2024 | 121,928 |
| 2025 | 107,919 |
| 2026 | 44,624 |
Data table
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Source: CMS Nursing Home Health Deficiencies, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. Live figures on the data journalism hub.
Methodology
Count provider_inspections rows for nursing homes with a survey date, grouped by year.
Exclude identifiable penalty / payment-denial rows.
Limits
Trends can move with survey volume and ingest windows, not only with care quality.
Partial years are reported as stored. Do not annualize them.
Sources
- CMS Nursing Home Health Deficiencies: Item-level citations and severe (G-L) deficiency counts
- Queryable cut: the ElderCareCosts provider, organization, quality, and inspection records behind this site (placeholder rows excluded).
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