F551: Give the resident's representative the ability to exercise the resident's rights
F551 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Give the resident's representative the ability to exercise the resident's rights.
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). 50.2% of F551 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: B 1, D 278, E 12, F 2, J 2.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F551 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, July 30, 2026, scope and severity DBased on interview and record review it was determined that for one (R184) out of seventeen residents reviewed for abuse the facility failed to ensure that the rights of resident representative were exercised.
Ocean Grove Post Acute, Millsboro, DE
Inspectors wrote, July 27, 2026, scope and severity DBased on interview and record review, the facility failed to notify the Power of Attorney (POA, a legal document that lets one person, act on their behalf) for health care decisions, during Changes of Condition (COC- a noticeable or measurable deviation in a person's physical, mental, or functional health status compared to their normal baseline), for one of 4 residents' (Resident 1). This failure violated the resident's instructions and the resident representative's rights provided by the state law and resulted in the resident's POA for healthcare decisions not aware of the residents changes in medical condition.
Lighthouse Healthcare Center, Los Angeles, CA
Inspectors wrote, July 15, 2026, scope and severity DBased on interview and record review, the facility did not ensure the right to make healthcare decisions was provided for 1 resident (R) (R1) of 1 sampled resident. R1 had an activated Power of Attorney for Healthcare (POAHC). R1's medical record contained multiple documents signed by a family member who was not their POAHC. The facility did not have authorization to allow someone other than R1's POAHC to make medical decisions on their behalf.
Edenbrook of Green Bay, Green Bay, WI
Most recent F551 citations at the harm or jeopardy level
Newest first, all 2 in the current files. Each home's page shows the citation in full context, with its correction status.
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 6, 2025 | Glenbridge Health and Rehabilitation | Boone, NC | J | Standard |
| March 14, 2024 | Park Manor of Humble | Humble, TX | J | Complaint |
Most recent F551 citations
F551 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.
By inspection year: 2019 3, 2020 1, 2021 3, 2022 8, 2023 39, 2024 93, 2025 84, 2026 64.
Common questions
- What is F551 in a nursing home inspection?
- F551 is the federal requirement to "give the resident's representative the ability to exercise the resident's rights". CMS files it under resident rights. A home cited under F551 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F551 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 295 F551 citations at 275 nursing homes, 88 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.7% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F551 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F551 citations (99.0%) were rated as potential for more than minimal harm, D to F. 2 were immediate jeopardy, the most serious 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