F166: Try to resolve each resident's complaints quickly
F166 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Try to resolve each resident's complaints quickly.
It sits in CMS's resident rights category.
CMS Health Deficiencies file, data as of September 1, 2026. The files hold each home's last three standard inspections and three years of complaint visits.
How seriously inspectors rate it
Every citation gets a letter for how much harm inspectors found and how many residents it touched (how to read the letters). 0.0% of F166 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: D 1.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F166 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, August 17, 2017, scope and severity DBased on resident interview, staff interviews, and clinical record review, the facility staff failed to promptly resolve a grievance for 1 of 25 residents (Resident #6), in the survey sample. The facility staff failed to resolve Resident #6's grievance to have his broken lower denture repaired or replaced.
Norfolk Health Care Center, Norfolk, VA
Most recent F166 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 17, 2017 | Norfolk Health Care Center | Norfolk, VA | D |
F166 citations by state
Counts depend on how many homes a state has and how often its inspectors visit, so a larger number is not by itself a worse record.
| State | Citations |
|---|---|
| Virginia | 1 |
By inspection year: 2017 1.
Common questions
- What is F166 in a nursing home inspection?
- F166 is the federal requirement to "try to resolve each resident's complaints quickly". CMS files it under resident rights. A home cited under F166 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F166 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 1 F166 citations at 1 nursing homes, 0 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.0% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F166 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F166 citations (100.0%) were rated as potential for more than minimal harm, D to F. None in the current files is at the immediate jeopardy level.
The interpretive guidance inspectors use for each F-tag is CMS's State Operations Manual, Appendix PP. NursingHomeClear reports the citations as CMS records them and is not affiliated with CMS. All F-tags · Methodology