F559: Honor the resident's right to share a room with spouse or roommate of choice and receive written notice before a change is made
F559 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Honor the resident's right to share a room with spouse or roommate of choice and receive written notice before a change is made.
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). 58.0% of F559 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: B 5, C 2, D 327, E 53, F 4, G 1, K 1.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F559 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 record review and staff interview, the facility failed to notify residents and their representatives of room changes. This failed practice was found true for (2) two of (3) three residents reviewed for room change notifications during the complaint survey. Resident identifiers: #60, and #68. Facility Census: 89.
Morgantown Heights of Journey, Morgantown, WV
Inspectors wrote, July 27, 2026, scope and severity EBased on observation, medical record review and interview, it was determined the facility staff failed to document in the residents' medical record if notification of a room change was made to residents and the residents' representative. This was evident for 4 (Resident #28, #29, #30 and #31) of 9 residents reviewed for room transfers during a complaint survey.
Ellicott City Healthcare Center, Ellicott City, MD
Inspectors wrote, July 27, 2026, scope and severity DBased on record review, and interviews, the facility failed to provide written notification of room changes and roommate changes for one (#15) of three residents reviewed for notifications out of 22 sample residents. Specifically, the facility failed to provide timely written notification of room changes to Resident #15 and/or the resident's representative in a language the resident could understand.
Accel at Longmont Health and Rehab, LLC, Longmont, CO
Most recent F559 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 30, 2026 | Fountain Circle Care & Rehabilitation Center | Winchester, KY | G | Standard |
| March 31, 2022 | Ridgeway Nursing & Rehabilitation Facility | Owingsville, KY | K | Standard |
Most recent F559 citations
F559 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: 2018 7, 2019 9, 2021 3, 2022 13, 2023 43, 2024 124, 2025 120, 2026 74.
Common questions
- What is F559 in a nursing home inspection?
- F559 is the federal requirement to "honor the resident's right to share a room with spouse or roommate of choice and receive written notice before a change is made". CMS files it under resident rights. A home cited under F559 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F559 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 393 F559 citations at 381 nursing homes, 101 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.5% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F559 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F559 citations (97.7%) were rated as potential for more than minimal harm, D to F. 1 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