Strengthen Your Health Inspection Rating — Don’t Leave Stars to Chance

Strengthen Your Health Inspection Rating — Don’t Leave Stars to Chance

 

The CMS 5-Star Quality Rating System can feel daunting, and few areas cause more stress than the Health Inspection domain.  Health Inspection outcomes are a reflection of how care is delivered every day, and survey performance directly influences your star rating.

 

Determining the Health Inspection Star Rating

CMS now calculates the Health Inspection component of the 5-Star Rating based on the two most recent standard surveys, along with complaint and revisit inspections. Understanding this methodology is critical: older surveys matter for complaints, but the core Health Inspection score focuses on the most recent survey cycles. Facilities that fail to track trends or identify recurring issues often see their stars stuck—or drop unexpectedly.

 

High-performing facilities approach survey readiness as an ongoing strategy, not a last-minute scramble. Strategies for success include:

• Analyze historical survey data for patterns
• Identify high-risk regulatory areas
• Tie QAPI initiatives directly to survey vulnerabilities
• Maintain operational consistency across departments

 

Common pitfalls that often keep facilities from achieving or maintaining 5 stars include gaps in clinical documentation, incomplete care transitions, staff competency validation lapses, and policies and procedures that exist only on paper. Proactive preparation and data-driven improvement efforts using a QAPI approach are critical—vs. only reacting after deficiencies are cited.

 

 

Next Steps:

1. Want to learn more about specific strategies to strengthen your Health Inspection performance and protect your facility’s star rating? Join us February 4, 2026 for the webinar session Strategies to Strengthen Your Health Inspection Rating presented by Shelly Maffia, MSN, MBA, RN, LNHA, Director of Regulatory Services as part of Proactive’s Roadmap to 5-Star Wins  This webinar will provide practical, actionable strategies to:

• • Decode CMS scoring methodology
  • Focus on high-impact survey areas
  • Implement QAPI initiatives that reduce citation risk
  • Keep your facility survey-ready year-round

Register today and take the first step toward stronger stars and a survey-ready facility.

2. Access the Proactive Survey Ready Toolkit which provides an 8-week facility wide initiative to sharpen your team’s survey readiness with step-wise department specific checklists, tools and resources to drive performance improvement and reduce deficiencies.
3. Contact Proactive to schedule a mock survey or clinical program review of high-risk areas as part of your 2026 survey preparedness strategy.

 

 

 

Written By:

 

 

Shelly Maffia, MSN, MBA, RN, LNHA, QCP, CHC, CPC, CLNC

Director of Regulatory Services