Greensboro Senior AdvisorDoes North Carolina rate adult care homes?
Yes. DHSR's Adult Care Licensure Section gives every adult care home and family care home a star rating from zero to four, with a numerical score behind it, and publishes it on its Facility Inspections, Ratings and Penalties search.
Of the 63 rated homes in the three counties, 27 hold four stars, 31 three, 3 two, 0 one and 2 none. The rating is built from what DHSR's inspectors find, not from family surveys or anything the operator reports, and it is North Carolina's own scale. CMS's five-star ratings apply only to certified nursing homes, so the two should never be compared directly: a four-star adult care home and a four-star nursing home are measured in completely different ways.
Where can we read a Greensboro home's inspection reports?
On DHSR's Facility Inspections, Ratings and Penalties search, which lists each home's inspection documents by date and type with links to the reports; every facility page in our directory reproduces that list.
The documents you will see most are the statement of deficiency, which lists each rule the inspectors found unmet with the evidence, and the same statement with a plan of correction, which adds the home's written fix and the date it promised to finish. “No Deficiencies Cited” means the visit found nothing to cite. Inspection types include annual surveys, follow-ups, complaint investigations by DHSR or the county department of social services, and construction-section visits that check the building.
How should we read a statement of deficiencies?
Read what was cited, how many residents it affected, and whether the follow-up visit found it corrected; a single paperwork citation means something very different from a medication error that reached several residents.
Look for patterns across years rather than one bad day: the same rule cited at two consecutive annual surveys, or a complaint investigation followed by penalties, is more telling than an isolated finding. Then take the document on the tour. Asking the administrator “what changed after the medication citation in your last survey?” usually reveals more than any brochure.
What do North Carolina's penalty types mean?
Under G.S. 131D-34 a Type A1 violation is one that resulted in death, serious physical harm, abuse, neglect or exploitation, a Type A2 violation created a substantial risk of that harm, and Type B violations present a lesser risk; A1 and A2 violations carry fines.
5 of the 64 licensed homes in the three counties appear on DHSR's 36-month penalty list, with 10 penalties totaling $23,000. DHSR's penalty list shows each penalty's inspection date, the rule cited, the level, the amount and whether it has been paid, appealed or settled. A penalty is not proof that the problem continues, so read the inspections that followed it as well.
Can we look up a nursing home the same way?
Partly: DHSR licenses North Carolina's nursing homes, but their quality data lives in CMS Care Compare, which publishes health inspection results, staffing hours, quality measures, fines and the one-to-five star ratings for every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified home.
Our nursing home pages copy those CMS figures with their data date and set each home against the three-county median. For a home that also holds adult care home beds on the same license, ask separately about the assisted living side, because CMS data covers only the certified nursing beds.
Side by side
| DHSR's adult care rating is | DHSR's adult care rating is not | |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | Zero to four stars, with a score | CMS's one-to-five scale |
| Basis | Inspection findings by state surveyors | Family reviews or operator data |
| Coverage | Adult care homes and family care homes | Nursing homes |
| Use | A starting point for questions | A substitute for reading the inspections |
Drawn from G.S. Chapter 131D, 10A NCAC 13F and 13G, DHSR and NCDHHS publications, NC Medicaid, CareScout, CMS, the VA and the Piedmont Triad aging agency cited in the text; our editorial standards explain how we check them.
