F850: Hire a qualified full-time social worker in a facility with more than 120 beds
F850 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Hire a qualified full-time social worker in a facility with more than 120 beds.
It sits in CMS's administration 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). 45.8% of F850 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: B 1, C 26, D 28, E 81, F 76.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F850 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, July 27, 2026, scope and severity FBased on interview, record review, review of facility job description and employment records, and review of State Agency (SA) records, the facility failed to employ a qualified full-time social worker (SW) in a facility with greater than 120 beds. During the time that the facility failed to have a qualified SW, one resident (Resident (R) 1) was issued a defective discharge notice for which there was also inadequate rationale. The failure to ensure the employment of a qualified SW had the potential to affect all residents in this facility which, per SA records, was currently certified for 226 beds.
Spring Creek Post-Acute Rehabilitation Center, Murray, KY
Inspectors wrote, July 24, 2026, scope and severity FBased on interview and record review the facility failed to have a qualified full time social service director. This has the potential to affect all 182 residents in the facility.
Alden Debes Rehab & HCC, Rockford, IL
Inspectors wrote, July 8, 2026, scope and severity FBased on record review and interviews the facility failed to ensure a licensed social worker worked full time in the facility. This had the potential to affect 127 residents in the facility.
Wickliffe Country Place, Wickliffe, OH
Most recent F850 citations
F850 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 4, 2020 1, 2021 5, 2022 13, 2023 35, 2024 58, 2025 53, 2026 43.
Common questions
- What is F850 in a nursing home inspection?
- F850 is the federal requirement to "hire a qualified full-time social worker in a facility with more than 120 beds". CMS files it under administration. A home cited under F850 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F850 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 212 F850 citations at 193 nursing homes, 57 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.0% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F850 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F850 citations (87.3%) 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