F715: Ensure the physician properly assigns and delegates tasks to a qualified dietitian (or other qualified nutrition professional); or to a qualified therapist
F715 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Ensure the physician properly assigns and delegates tasks to a qualified dietitian (or other qualified nutrition professional); or to a qualified therapist.
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). 66.7% of F715 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: C 1, D 2.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F715 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, April 6, 2026, scope and severity DBased on observation, record review, and interview, the facility failed to ensure the physician signed therapeutic diet orders for total parenteral nutrition (TPN- a method of delivering complete nutrition intravenously to patients who cannot use their digestive system), written by a registered dietitian (RD) for one Resident, (#10), out of a total sample of 13 residents.
Webster Park Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, Rockland, MA
Inspectors wrote, October 21, 2024, scope and severity DBased on medical record review and interview, a facility provider failed to refer a resident's case to a dietitian when the resident required additional supplementation (resident #30). This was evident for 1 of 30 residents reviewed during a complaint survey.
Maryland Masonic Homes Ltd, Cockeysville, MD
Most recent F715 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 6, 2026 | Webster Park Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center | Rockland, MA | D |
| October 21, 2024 | Maryland Masonic Homes Ltd | Cockeysville, MD | D |
| September 6, 2024 | Bywood East Health Care | Minneapolis, MN | C |
F715 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 |
|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 1 |
| Maryland | 1 |
| Minnesota | 1 |
By inspection year: 2024 2, 2026 1.
Common questions
- What is F715 in a nursing home inspection?
- F715 is the federal requirement to "ensure the physician properly assigns and delegates tasks to a qualified dietitian (or other qualified nutrition professional); or to a qualified therapist". CMS files it under nursing and physician services. A home cited under F715 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F715 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 3 F715 citations at 3 nursing homes, 1 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.0% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F715 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F715 citations (66.7%) 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