F246: Reasonably accommodate the needs and preferences of each resident
F246 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Reasonably accommodate the needs and preferences of each resident.
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 F246 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: D 1.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F246 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, March 23, 2017, scope and severity DBased on observations, resident, staff and group interviews, the facility staff failed to provide laundry services with reasonable accommodations for one resident, Resident #17, in the survey sample of 47 residents.
Potomac Falls Health & Rehab Center, Sterling, VA
Most recent F246 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 23, 2017 | Potomac Falls Health & Rehab Center | Sterling, VA | D |
F246 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 F246 in a nursing home inspection?
- F246 is the federal requirement to "reasonably accommodate the needs and preferences of each resident". CMS files it under resident rights. A home cited under F246 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F246 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 1 F246 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 F246 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F246 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