What this award recognizes
The Placet Capability-Verified Top 10% award identifies, for each U.S. state, the top 10% of skilled nursing facilities by a composite of three CMS Care Compare metrics — overall rating, staffing rating, and health inspection rating — restricted to facilities with at least one verified clinical capability that takes a complex patient.
Why this filter
CMS star ratings alone do not tell you whether a facility can take a tracheostomy, ventilator, IV antibiotic, dialysis, wound vac, or bariatric patient. Many high-rated facilities cherry-pick low-acuity residents. We filter to facilities that say yes to at least one of those capabilities so that the award reflects measurable clinical capacity, not just survey performance with an easy patient mix.
Composite score
composite = overall_rating + staffing_rating + health_inspection_rating (range 3 to 15). Ties broken by overall_rating, then staffing_rating, then alphabetical facility name.
Cohort
All Medicare/Medicaid certified nursing facilities (CCN-bearing) in the United States, grouped by state.
Threshold
Top 10% of the eligible cohort within each state, with a floor of at least 1 winner per state if the eligible pool has more than 10 facilities. Maximum 50 winners per state.
Exclusions
- Active CMS abuse icon flag
- Special Focus Facility designation, including candidate status
- Any complaint-driven deficiency in the past 12 months at scope/severity G or above (actual harm or immediate jeopardy)
- Facilities with no verified clinical capability
Time window
The award is computed annually. The CMS data snapshot used is the most recent quarterly Provider Info release as of the computation date.