Nationwide Nursing Home & Abuse Lawyers
Dedicated legal advocates protecting your loved ones nationwide. When nursing homes break their promise of care, our experienced attorneys fight for the justice your family deserves.
Last updated: May 2026
Tennessee consistently ranks among the worst states in the country for nursing home quality — 47th out of 50 states according to national rankings. This page provides families with direct access to inspection records, CMS star ratings, and deficiency citation histories for specific Tennessee nursing home facilities.
Every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in Tennessee is subject to regular inspections by the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Those inspection records are public — and they contain information every family should review before placing a loved one in a facility or when concerns arise about a current resident’s care.
If your loved one was seriously harmed at a Tennessee nursing home, inspection records can be an important part of understanding what happened and whether the facility had a documented history of similar failures. Tennessee nursing home abuse lawyer
Tennessee nursing homes certified to accept Medicare or Medicaid patients are inspected at least once every 15 months by state surveyors from the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission. Surveys typically include an unannounced visit during which surveyors observe care, interview residents and staff, and review medical records and facility policies.
When surveyors identify a failure to meet federal or state standards, they issue a deficiency citation. Each deficiency is assigned a severity level and a scope designation.
Level 1 — No actual harm, potential for minimal harm. The deficiency is a technical violation with no meaningful impact on resident care or safety.
Level 2 — No actual harm, potential for more than minimal harm. The deficiency represents a failure that could cause harm but has not yet done so.
Level 3 — Actual harm that is not immediate jeopardy. The failure caused real harm to one or more residents but did not rise to the level of an imminent threat.
Level 4 — Immediate Jeopardy. The most serious designation. Surveyors have determined that the facility’s failure has caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident. Facilities receiving an Immediate Jeopardy citation are required to correct the deficiency immediately or face termination from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Isolated — The deficiency affected one or a small number of residents.
Pattern — The deficiency occurred across multiple residents or on multiple occasions, indicating a systemic rather than one-time failure.
Widespread — The deficiency affected many residents across the facility.
A Pattern or Widespread designation is legally significant — it means the problem was not an isolated incident but a recurring or systemic failure affecting multiple people in the facility’s care.
Tennessee nursing homes rank 47th out of 50 states in national quality rankings according to AARP. Only three states in the country have worse nursing home quality outcomes than Tennessee.
That ranking reflects real, measurable failures — higher rates of preventable injuries, more deficiency citations per facility, lower staffing levels, and worse outcomes on quality measures compared to most of the country.
For families with loved ones in Tennessee nursing homes, this means the stakes of monitoring care quality are higher than in most states. Understanding a facility’s inspection history is not just due diligence — it is often the difference between recognizing a warning sign early and discovering a serious problem after it has caused irreversible harm.
Common deficiency categories found in Tennessee nursing home inspections include failures to prevent and treat bedsores, inadequate infection control leading to conditions like sepsis, poor supervision of fall-risk residents, chronic understaffing, and care planning failures that leave residents without individualized care guidance.
The following pages contain detailed inspection histories, CMS star ratings, and deficiency citation summaries for specific Tennessee nursing home facilities. Each page is based on publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Care Compare database.
If a facility you are looking for is not listed below, you can search inspection records directly at Medicare.gov Care Compare.
NHC Healthcare Hendersonville
370 Old Shackle Island Road, Hendersonville, TN 37075
Overall CMS Rating: 2 stars — Below Average
Notable: Immediate Jeopardy citation November 2025 for failure to maintain safe environment and provide adequate supervision. Recurring care planning deficiencies across 2019, 2022, and 2025 inspections.
NHC Healthcare Franklin
Franklin, TN
Overall CMS Rating: TBD
Notable: Immediate Jeopardy citation October 2025.
Good Samaritan Health and Rehab Antioch
Antioch, TN
Overall CMS Rating: TBD
Notable: Immediate Jeopardy citation October 2025.
Life Care Center of Hickory Woods
4200 Murfreesboro Pike, Antioch, TN 37013
Overall CMS Rating: 5 stars — Much Above Average
Notable: Exceptional short-stay rehabilitation outcomes. Long-stay fall rate 63% above national average. Weight loss rate nearly 2.5x national average. Mobility decline rate nearly double national average. High staff turnover.
NHC Healthcare Chattanooga
Chattanooga, TN
Overall CMS Rating: 4 stars
Detailed inspection history and deficiency citations available on the facility page.
NHC Healthcare Columbia
101 Walnut Lane, Columbia, TN 38401
Overall CMS Rating: 4 stars — Above Average
Notable: Strong quality measures including rehospitalization rate of 5.6% vs 23.9% national average. Staffing below national average. Short-stay fall rate more than twice the national average. Most recent inspection on file dates to November 2021.
Every Tennessee nursing home certified for Medicare or Medicaid can be searched at Medicare.gov Care Compare. To find a facility:
You can also request inspection reports directly from the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission.
For a complete guide to reading and interpreting inspection reports, see our page on Understanding Nursing Home Inspections and Ratings.
Inspection records alone do not establish legal liability — but they are often the starting point for understanding whether a facility’s failure to meet standards caused or contributed to a resident’s injury.
When we evaluate a potential nursing home neglect case in Tennessee, inspection records are among the first documents we review. We look for several things:
Recurring deficiencies — When a facility has been cited for the same type of failure across multiple inspection cycles, it establishes that the facility had notice of the problem and failed to correct it. That pattern is legally significant.
Immediate Jeopardy citations — These represent the most serious regulatory findings available. A facility with a recent Immediate Jeopardy citation has been found by state and federal surveyors to pose an active threat to resident safety.
Staffing deficiencies — Low staffing levels are the most common driver of nursing home neglect. Inspection records documenting staffing failures corroborate claims that insufficient staffing caused or contributed to a resident’s harm.
Deficiency scope — Pattern and Widespread designations indicate systemic failures affecting multiple residents, which strengthens the argument that a facility’s problems were institutional rather than incidental.
If your loved one was harmed at a Tennessee nursing home and you want to understand whether the facility’s inspection history is relevant to your situation, contact The Higgins Firm for a free consultation.
Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes in Tennessee are required to undergo a standard survey at least once every 15 months. Facilities can also be subject to complaint investigations at any time when a complaint is filed with the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission.
Yes. All standard survey reports, complaint investigation reports, and deficiency citations for Medicare and Medicaid certified facilities are publicly available at Medicare.gov Care Compare. Reports are typically posted within a few weeks of survey completion.
An Immediate Jeopardy citation — Level 4 on the federal deficiency severity scale — means government surveyors determined that a facility’s failure caused, or was likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident. It is the most serious citation available under federal nursing home regulations. Facilities must correct the deficiency immediately or face termination from Medicare and Medicaid.
A 2-star overall rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services means the facility performs below average compared to other nursing homes nationally. The overall rating combines scores from health inspections, staffing levels, and quality measures. Below-average ratings across multiple components suggest the facility’s performance issues are not isolated.
Inspection records are government documents and are admissible in civil litigation. Deficiency citations — particularly recurring citations, Pattern or Widespread scope designations, and Immediate Jeopardy findings — can be powerful evidence in a nursing home neglect case because they represent verified findings by trained state and federal surveyors, not allegations.
Document your concerns in writing. Visit the facility and ask specifically about the deficiencies cited in the inspection report and what corrective actions were taken. If your loved one shows any signs of neglect or injury, seek medical attention and contact a nursing home neglect attorney. Tennessee’s statute of limitations for nursing home negligence is one year from the date of injury — acting quickly matters.
If your loved one was harmed at a Tennessee nursing home — whether or not that facility is listed on this page — The Higgins Firm is ready to help. We handle serious nursing home neglect and abuse cases throughout Tennessee on a contingency fee basis. No fee unless we recover for you.
Call 866-972-0125 or contact us online for a free consultation.
The Higgins Firm represents families in nursing home neglect and abuse cases throughout Tennessee. Inspection data on this page is sourced from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Care Compare database and the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission. This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. | Last updated: May 2026
Dedicated legal advocates protecting your loved ones nationwide. When nursing homes break their promise of care, our experienced attorneys fight for the justice your family deserves.