Number of nursing homes DECREASING in US

You would think that the number of nursing homes would be increasing, but counts from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicate the opposite.  In its fact-packed annual statistical compendium (it’s FREE, too!), CMS notes that there has been a steady decline between 2003, the first year noted, and 2012.  What’s being counted are nursing homes certified to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which you have got to guess is pretty much everybody.  Here are the counts from Figure 1.1 on page 11.

Number of Nursing Homes in the US

• 16,380  2003
• 16,163  2004
• 16,032  2005
• 15,932  2006
• 15,857  2007
• 15,763  2008
• 15,702  2009
• 15,646  2010
• 15,765  2011
• 15,652  2012

Almost all nursing homes (80 percent) fall somewhere in the range of 50 to 200 beds.  Over two-thirds are investor-owned.  There were more than 1.4 million people living in nursing homes in 2012.

This is a remarkable data source with much much more about how nursing homes did on different quality measures.  Note that this is not facility-specific; rather, most of the report is broken out by state.  Well worth a look, though, if you are studying the nursing home field.

Source: U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.  Nursing Home Data Compendium, 2013 ed.  Click here to access this free document:  https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/CertificationandComplianc/downlads/nursinghomedatacompendium_508.pdf    Posted by AHA Resource Center (312) 422-2003, rc@aha.org