States’ backlogs of standard surveys of nursing homes grew substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic United States. Department of Health and Human Services Government Regulation Health Care Surveys -- statistics & numerical data Nursing Homes -- legislation & jurisprudence COVID-19 Our report, Onsite Surveys of Nursing Homes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: March 23 – May 30, 2020, found that State Survey agencies (States) faced backlogs of standard surveys of nursing homes early in the COVID-19 pandemic, with 8 percent of nursing homes having gone at least 16 months without a standard survey as of June 2020. This Addendum updates that analysis. We found that States’ backlogs grew substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, 71 percent of nursing homes (10,913 of 15,295) had gone at least 16 months without a standard survey as of May 31, 2021. By State, the backlogs for standard surveys ranged from 22 percent to 96 percent of nursing homes (see Table 1 on page 2 for the backlogs for each State). States, on behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), are required to conduct standard surveys of Medicare/Medicaid-certified nursing homes at least every 15 months to ensure that they meet Federal requirements. Standard surveys are comprehensive onsite inspections that evaluate the safety and quality of care provided by nursing homes. Surveyors cite deficiencies during these surveys when they observe a nursing home violating a Federal requirement. These deficiencies can result in CMS imposing remedies, such as civil monetary penalties, on the nursing home. In addition, surveyors discuss observations with nursing home staff throughout these surveys and may alert them to concerns with resident care, providing the nursing home with the opportunity to address these concerns by presenting additional information to the surveyors.6 In March 2020, to protect public health and address other concerns associated with the Public Health Emergency, CMS suspended standard surveys in nursing homes to reduce surveyor time on site. CMS shifted oversight to infection control surveys, which are more limited in scope than the standard surveys. 7 States also continued to conduct surveys for the most serious nursing home complaints while CMS suspended standard surveys. In August 2020, CMS authorized States to resume standard surveys “as soon as they have the resources (e.g., staff and/or Personal Protective Equipment) to do so.” Washington, D.C. : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, July 2021 United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Inspector General. Office of Evaluation and Inspections, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (4 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-9918384885106676-pdf 9918384885106676 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918384885106676 English United States The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0