Glossary
Definitions below are written for this directory. They are not official CMS or HHSC wording. Official meanings control when they differ.
Certification and license
- HHSC roster
- The Texas Health and Human Services Commission directory of nursing facilities with an active license as of the date stamped on the workbook.
- Federally certified
- HHSC lists the facility as certified to participate in Medicare, Medicaid, or both. Certification is what allows those programs to pay for covered stays.
- NF licensed only
- HHSC service type for a home that is licensed as a nursing facility but is not certified for Medicare or Medicaid. These homes are included in this directory and labeled as licensed only.
- CCN
- CMS Certification Number, a federal identifier. This site joins it to the HHSC Medicare Provider Number after padding numeric values to six characters.
- TULIP
- Texas Unified Licensure Information Portal, HHSC’s public lookup for long-term care providers and their state inspection records. This site links out; it does not scrape TULIP.
Surveys and citations
- Standard survey
- The periodic inspection a certified home is scheduled to receive, as opposed to a survey opened only to investigate a complaint.
- Complaint survey
- An inspection opened in response to a complaint. A citation may be flagged as coming from a complaint survey, a standard survey, or both.
- Deficiency tag
- The federal code (for example, a number in the “F” series) that identifies the requirement cited. The official description of the requirement is in CMS materials and on official lookup sites.
- Scope and severity letter
- A letter A through L that combines how widely a problem was found and how serious the harm was or could have been. See the grid below.
- Immediate jeopardy
- The most serious harm category in the letter grid (J, K, or L): a situation in which noncompliance has caused or is likely to cause serious injury, harm, impairment, or death, as CMS uses that term.
- Correction status
- Whether the CMS file records a correction date for the citation. “Not recorded as corrected” means the file does not show a correction, not that this site investigated the current state of the issue.
| Harm level | Isolated | Pattern | Widespread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immediate jeopardy | J | K | L |
| Actual harm | G | H | I |
| Potential for more than minimal harm | D | E | F |
| Potential for minimal harm | A | B | C |
Isolated means one or a very small number of residents. Pattern means more than a few, but not most. Widespread means it affected a large portion of the facility or its systems. These are plain-language readings of the federal letter codes; the official definitions live in CMS guidance.
Ratings and flags
- Five-Star / overall rating
- CMS’s published one-to-five star rating for a certified nursing home, plus domain ratings for inspection, staffing, and quality measures. Displayed as published; not assigned by this site.
- Footnote
- A CMS note explaining why a rating or measure is missing or should be read with caution. A footnoted field is not a one-star rating.
- Special Focus
- A CMS program that identifies homes with a persistent record of serious quality problems. See the explainer.
- Abuse icon
- A CMS flag on Care Compare related to certain abuse citations, under CMS policy. See the same explainer. It is not a finding this site adds.