Please read these Terms of Use carefully before using Care Safety Check. By accessing or using this website, you agree to be bound by these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use this site.
1. Who we are
Care Safety Check ("we," "us," "our") is an independent publication that summarizes publicly available inspection, staffing, enforcement, and quality data maintained by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). We are not a healthcare provider, placement agency, legal firm, insurance company, or government entity.
2. What this site provides
Care Safety Check provides informational summaries of publicly available federal data. Specifically, we:
- Display and summarize inspection records, deficiency citations, staffing data, quality measures, and enforcement actions from the CMS Care Compare database
- Calculate and display Care Safety Signal™ scores — weighted composite scores derived from the above data
- Offer downloadable facility report summaries for personal use
- Provide a free facility evaluation checklist as an educational resource
All source data originates from government databases. We do not create, alter, or verify the underlying government records. Our role is translation and presentation, not investigation or certification.
3. What this site does not provide
Nothing on this site constitutes medical advice, legal advice, financial advice, or a recommendation to choose or avoid any particular facility. Specifically:
- A high Care Safety Signal™ score is not a guarantee of quality care or resident safety
- A low score is not a guarantee of poor care — facilities may have improved since their last inspection
- Our scores are not a substitute for in-person visits, conversations with current residents and families, or consultation with qualified healthcare professionals
- We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting as an agent of CMS, any state survey agency, or any facility listed on this site
Always consult qualified medical, legal, and elder care professionals before making any care decision.
4. Accuracy of information
We update our data within 72 hours of each monthly CMS data release. However, we cannot guarantee that information is current, complete, or error-free at all times. Government databases themselves contain errors, lag real-world events, and vary in reliability across states and time periods.
We display a data freshness indicator on each facility report. If a facility has not been inspected in more than 15 months, we display a staleness warning. You should independently verify any data point through the official CMS Care Compare website at medicare.gov/care-compare before relying on it for a care decision.
5. Permitted use
You may use this site for personal, non-commercial purposes — specifically to research care facilities for yourself, a family member, or someone in your care. You may print or download facility reports for personal use and share them with other family members involved in a care decision.
You may not:
- Reproduce, republish, or redistribute facility reports or score data for commercial purposes without our written permission
- Use our data to build a competing product or service without a licensing agreement
- Systematically scrape, harvest, or download facility data in bulk
- Use this site in any way that violates applicable laws or regulations
- Misrepresent Care Safety Check scores or data as official government ratings
6. Purchased reports
Facility PDF reports are sold as a one-time digital download for personal use. Due to the digital nature of these products, all sales are final and non-refundable once the report has been delivered. If you experience a technical delivery failure, contact us at hello@caresafetycheck.com within 7 days and we will re-deliver the report at no charge.
Purchased reports reflect data as of the date of purchase. We do not automatically update purchased reports when CMS data is refreshed. If you need a current report after a data update, a new purchase is required.
7. Email communications
By submitting your email address through any form on this site, you consent to receive the specific communication described at the point of submission (such as the free checklist, facility alert updates, or a response to a contact inquiry). You may unsubscribe from any email communication at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us directly.
8. Facility operators
If you represent a facility listed on this site and believe your CMS data contains an error, the appropriate path is to contact your state survey agency or CMS directly to correct the underlying government record. We do not accept requests to alter, suppress, or adjust scores or data outside of the automated monthly CMS data refresh. We will review and respond to written factual correction requests within 5 business days.
We do not accept payment from facilities to influence their scores, rankings, or display on this site.
9. Intellectual property
The Care Safety Signal™ scoring methodology, score names, and brand are proprietary to Care Safety Check. The underlying government data we display is in the public domain. Our written summaries, explanations, and report formatting are original works protected by copyright. You may not reproduce them without attribution and permission.
10. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Care Safety Check, its owners, and contributors shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of this site or reliance on any information displayed here. This includes — without limitation — any care decision made based on information from this site.
This site is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, express or implied.
11. Third-party links
This site contains links to government databases, official regulatory resources, and third-party information sources. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, or privacy practices of those external sites.
12. Independence and funding
Care Safety Check is an independent publication. We do not accept placement referral fees, sponsored listings, or any payment from care facilities to influence scores or rankings.
Our revenue comes from two sources: (1) a one-time fee for downloadable PDF facility reports, and (2) third-party display advertising served by Google AdSense on informational guide pages. We block care facility and senior care placement ad categories from appearing on this site. Ads are never shown on individual facility report pages. Our scoring methodology and facility data are not influenced by advertising relationships of any kind.
13. Changes to these terms
We may update these Terms of Use from time to time. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of the site after any update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
14. Governing law and disputes
These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any dispute arising from your use of this site shall be resolved in the courts of Maryland, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.
If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
15. Contact
Questions about these terms: hello@caresafetycheck.com or our contact page.