F252: Provide a safe, clean, comfortable and home-like environment; and allow residents to use personal belongings to the extent possible
F252 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Provide a safe, clean, comfortable and home-like environment; and allow residents to use personal belongings to the extent possible.
It sits in CMS's environmental 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 F252 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: E 1.
Most recent F252 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 23, 2017 | Potomac Falls Health & Rehab Center | Sterling, VA | E |
F252 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 F252 in a nursing home inspection?
- F252 is the federal requirement to "provide a safe, clean, comfortable and home-like environment; and allow residents to use personal belongings to the extent possible". CMS files it under environmental. A home cited under F252 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F252 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 1 F252 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 F252 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F252 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