The Nursing Home COVID-19 Public File includes data reported by nursing homes to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) system COVID-19 Long Term Care Facility Module, including Resident Impact, Facility Capacity, Staff & Personnel, and Supplies & Personal Protective Equipment, and Ventilator Capacity and Supplies Data Elements.
For a full list of variables included in this Public Use File (PUF) and their descriptions, please see below. The file contains an individual record for each certified Medicare skilled nursing facility/Medicaid nursing facility and the ending date for each collection week, and is updated weekly. More information on CMS requirements for reporting COVID-19 information can be found
here. We note that the presence of cases of COVID-19 in a nursing home does not automatically indicate noncompliance with federal requirements. This information is used to assist with national surveillance of COVID-19 in nursing homes, and support actions to protect the health and safety of nursing home residents.
NOTE: There are several limitations to this is preliminary data.
- The first deadline for reporting data was 11:59 p.m. Sunday, May 17, 2020. As the number of facilities reporting increases each week, it will increase the reported number of COVID-19 cases, suspected cases, and deaths each week.
- As with any new reporting program, some facilities will struggle with their first submissions, and therefore, some of the data from their early submissions may be inaccurate. Since facilities may correct data in future weeks, the data is subject to fluctuations as data for previously reported weeks may change when the website is updated.
- The availability of testing may impact the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases facilities report. For example, facilities that did not have the ability to test all residents a few weeks ago would not be able to report all residents with confirmed cases. Similarly, access to testing can vary by state, region, or facility.
- Facilities may opt to report cumulative data retrospectively back to January 1, 2020. Therefore, some facilities may be reporting higher numbers of cases/deaths compared to other facilities, due to their retrospective reporting. Numbers for Week Ending 05/24/2020 may include reporting for any time between 01/01/2020 through 05/24/2020. Reporting for subsequent weeks is on a weekly basis.
- Data Quality Assurance (QA) and Validation (QA Flags): Data quality checks were performed on the following resident and staff data fields: 1) number of resident admissions/readmissions; 2) number of COVID-19 confirmed cases; 3) number of COVID-19 suspected cases; 4) number of COVID-19 deaths; and 5) total resident deaths. Any reporting facility that has entered data in any of these fields (1-5 above) are re-assigned a null value (.) if any of the following criteria are met more than three times: 1) the same value (> 0) is entered sequentially regardless of interval between any two entries; and 2) values entered in consecutive days increase in a cumulative pattern, potentially indicating a summation of values over time. The cut-points for the second criteria vary depending on the interval between consecutive days data are entered. In addition, if a death-related field meets one of these two criteria, associated data fields may also be re-assigned a null value to underscore the need for review and possible revision. For example, a COVID-19 death value meeting the above criteria will have the COVID-19 death and total death values re-assigned as null, and vice vasa. This procedure aims to reduce misrepresentation and inaccuracies in the public reporting of these data. Nursing homes that fall under these conditions will be flagged as “N” in the “Passed Quality Assurance Check” column and their data will not be included in the public dataset.
Due to these factors, CMS cautions users to consi
