F333: Ensure that residents are safe from serious medication errors
F333 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Ensure that residents are safe from serious medication errors.
It sits in CMS's pharmacy service 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 F333 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: D 1, E 2.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F333 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 EBased on observation, clinical record review, staff interview and facility documentation the facility staff failed to administer two (2) significant medications for 1 out of 25 residents in the survey sample, (Resident #20). The facility staff failed to transcribe and administer 3 doses of Clonidine (1) and 7 doses of Methyldopa (2) (Hypertensive medications) as ordered by the cardiologist.
Norfolk Health Care Center, Norfolk, VA
Most recent F333 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 17, 2017 | Norfolk Health Care Center | Norfolk, VA | E |
| August 10, 2017 | Nans Pointe Rehabilitation and Nursing | Suffolk, VA | E |
| July 13, 2017 | Portsmouth Health and Rehab | Portsmouth, VA | D |
F333 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 F333 in a nursing home inspection?
- F333 is the federal requirement to "ensure that residents are safe from serious medication errors". CMS files it under pharmacy service. A home cited under F333 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F333 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 3 F333 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 F333 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F333 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