F498: Make sure that nurse aides show they have the skills and techniques to be able to care for residents' needs
F498 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Make sure that nurse aides show they have the skills and techniques to be able to care for residents' needs.
It sits in CMS's nursing and physician services 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 F498 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: E 1.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F498 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 EBased on staff interviews and facility documentation review, the facility staff failed to ensure continuing competency of nursing aides with training hours no less than 12 hours a year. Specifically, the facility staff failed to ensure that five out of 46 CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants) had completed at least 12 hours of training per year per hire anniversary date for each CNA.
Potomac Falls Health & Rehab Center, Sterling, VA
Most recent F498 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 23, 2017 | Potomac Falls Health & Rehab Center | Sterling, VA | E |
F498 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 F498 in a nursing home inspection?
- F498 is the federal requirement to "make sure that nurse aides show they have the skills and techniques to be able to care for residents' needs". CMS files it under nursing and physician services. A home cited under F498 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F498 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 1 F498 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 F498 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F498 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