F315: Ensure that each resident who enters the nursing home without a catheter is not given a catheter, unless medically necessary, and that incontinent patients receive proper services to prevent urinary tract infections and restore normal bladder functions
F315 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Ensure that each resident who enters the nursing home without a catheter is not given a catheter, unless medically necessary, and that incontinent patients receive proper services to prevent urinary tract infections and restore normal bladder functions.
It sits in CMS's quality of life and care 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 F315 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: D 3.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F315 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, November 9, 2017, scope and severity DBased on observation, staff interview, facility document review and clinical record review, the facility staff failed to ensure tubing for a urinary catheter was anchored for one of 24 residents in the survey sample. The tubing for Resident #4's urinary catheter was not anchored to minimize tension on the tubing as required in her plan of care.
Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Colonial Heights, VA
Most recent F315 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 9, 2017 | Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center | Colonial Heights, VA | D |
| August 10, 2017 | Nans Pointe Rehabilitation and Nursing | Suffolk, VA | D |
| July 13, 2017 | Portsmouth Health and Rehab | Portsmouth, VA | D |
F315 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 | 3 |
By inspection year: 2017 3.
Common questions
- What is F315 in a nursing home inspection?
- F315 is the federal requirement to "ensure that each resident who enters the nursing home without a catheter is not given a catheter, unless medically necessary, and that incontinent patients receive proper services to prevent urinary tract infections and restore normal bladder functions". CMS files it under quality of life and care. A home cited under F315 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F315 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 3 F315 citations at 3 nursing homes, 0 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.0% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F315 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F315 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