Nursing (Post-Acute and Skilled Nursing) Home Navigation
Written by Hao Huang
Updated at August 5th, 2025
Table of Contents
Main Recommended Resource for Nursing Home and Rehab Navigation
Medicare Care Compare
đź”— https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/
Click the left-hand column on “Nursing homes including rehab services.”
Note that the search will include both Post-Acute Rehab and Skilled Nursing Facility results.
Post-Acute Rehab:
A place where patients go after the hospital to get daily therapy—like physical or occupational therapy—to help recover and prepare themselves to safely return home. Care is short-term and focused on rehab.
Skilled Nursing Facility:
A skilled nursing facility is a licensed health care setting where patients receive 24-hour medical care and assistance from nurses and other professionals. Services may include help with medications, wound care, physical therapy, and help with daily activities like bathing and dressing. Skilled nursing facilities can be for short- or long-term care.Â
Note some places will use this term synonymously with “nursing home,” while others will use it to refer to a shorter-term service geared towards returning patients to function (much like post-acute rehab though less intensive). Note that many facilities will also offer overlapping services.
How to Choose a Nursing Home
Getting Started
đź”— https://www.medicare.gov/publications/02174-your-guide-to-choosing-a-nursing-home
Questions to Ask
đź”— https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/en/assets/resources/nursing-home/nursing-home-checklist.pdf
Page 7 includes questions that are specific to dementia.
Interpreting the Care-Compare Rating System
The star rating system is only based on three things, and is just a weighted average of them:
Inspection
Rating of inspection from the last three years. Includes citations, complaints, and infection control parameters.
Staffing
Is basically just the ratio of reported nursing hours to residents. Is also somewhat broken down by staff licensure (RN, aide, PT, etc.) Also factors in staff turnover within the last year.
Quality
Measurables for common issues that arise in nursing facilities, quality metrics are used throughout medicine as an attempt to roughly define quality of care. For nursing homes, this would include things like rehospitalization rates, ED visit rates, pressure ulcers, antipsychotic/hypnotic use frequency, catheter/UTI rates, vaccinations rates, etc.
Other Resources
These can also include listings of nursing homes and other resources by area, but they do not include as extensive of (or any) rating system: