Oklahoma has 283 nursing homes certified by Medicare and Medicaid. Federal inspectors issued 192 citations at the immediate jeopardy level, the most serious finding available, and 522 citations for abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Twenty-eight Oklahoma facilities currently carry the abuse warning icon that CMS displays publicly on Care Compare.
Worried about someone you love in an Oklahoma nursing home? Tell us what you’ve noticed and we’ll go over it with you at no cost. Call 918-728-8888 or send us a message.
Data current as of: October 2026 release. Citation period: February 2019 to July 2026.
Page last reviewed: October 2026.
Reviewed by: Hansen Dirani, Managing Partner
How many nursing homes are in Oklahoma?
There are 283 CMS-certified nursing homes in Oklahoma, with 27,555 certified beds. On an average day these facilities care for roughly 17,259 residents. The largest concentrations are in Oklahoma County (40 facilities) and Tulsa County (33).
| Certified nursing homes | 283 |
|---|---|
| Certified beds | 27,555 |
| Average residents per day | 17,259 |
| Facilities rated 1 or 2 stars overall | 140 of 281 |
| Facilities with the CMS abuse icon | 28 |
| Special Focus Facilities | 2 |
| Special Focus candidates | 10 |
How many Oklahoma nursing homes have been cited for abuse?
Federal inspectors issued 522 citations to Oklahoma nursing homes under the category CMS calls Freedom from Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation. Separately, 28 facilities, about 9.9 percent of the state total, currently display the abuse icon on Care Compare. CMS applies that icon when a facility has been cited for abuse that caused harm, or for abuse that could have caused harm, within a recent inspection window. Nationally, 1,429 of 14,690 facilities carry the icon, or about 9.7 percent, so Oklahoma sits very close to the national rate.
What is an immediate jeopardy citation?
Immediate jeopardy is the most serious finding a federal nursing home inspector can make. It means the facility’s failure has caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident. A facility cited at this level must correct the problem immediately, and CMS can impose fines or halt Medicare and Medicaid payments.
Oklahoma facilities received 192 immediate jeopardy citations across the inspection records published in October 2026, including 158 within the most recent three years.
The CMS scope and severity grid
Every citation gets one letter, A through L. The letter encodes two things at once: how serious the problem was, and how many residents it reached. Letters G and above mean harm actually occurred. Letters J, K, and L mean immediate jeopardy.
| Severity of the problem | Isolated | Pattern | Widespread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety | J | K | L |
| Actual harm that is not immediate jeopardy | G | H | I |
| No actual harm, but potential for more than minimal harm | D | E | F |
| No actual harm, potential for minimal harm | A | B | C |
How serious are Oklahoma’s nursing home citations?
Of the 6,449 health citations issued to Oklahoma nursing homes in the published record, 313 were at the actual harm level or higher. The breakdown below shows how those citations distribute across the severity scale.
| Severity code | What it means | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| L | Immediate jeopardy, widespread | 7 |
| K | Immediate jeopardy, pattern | 38 |
| J | Immediate jeopardy, isolated | 147 |
| H | Actual harm, pattern | 13 |
| G | Actual harm, isolated | 108 |
| F | Potential for harm, widespread | 262 |
| E | Potential for harm, pattern | 2,662 |
| D | Potential for harm, isolated | 3,198 |
| B, C | Minimal harm potential | 14 |
What are Oklahoma nursing homes cited for most often?
The single largest category is quality of life and care, followed by resident assessment and care planning. Abuse, neglect, and exploitation is the sixth most common category, with 522 citations.
| Category | Citations |
|---|---|
| Quality of life and care | 1,320 |
| Resident assessment and care planning | 1,224 |
| Resident rights | 876 |
| Pharmacy service | 778 |
| Nutrition and dietary | 532 |
| Freedom from abuse, neglect, and exploitation | 522 |
| Infection control | 513 |
| Nursing and physician services | 281 |
| Administration | 262 |
| Environmental | 141 |
What is a Special Focus Facility?
CMS maintains a list of nursing homes with a persistent record of poor performance. These facilities are inspected twice as often as others and face escalating penalties if they do not improve. Oklahoma currently has two designated Special Focus Facilities and ten facilities on the candidate list, meaning CMS has identified them as among the state’s poorest performers but has not yet given them the formal designation.
How do I check a specific Oklahoma nursing home?
CMS publishes an inspection record for every certified facility at Medicare’s Care Compare site. You can look up star ratings, staffing hours, the date of the last inspection, every citation issued, and any fines. The underlying data files are also published in full at the CMS Provider Data Catalog and are free to download.
If you are trying to understand what a specific citation meant for your family member, the inspector’s written report for that survey is a public record.
See also: county inspection records for Tulsa County, with facility-level detail for the Tulsa metro, along with Oklahoma County, Mayes County, and Muskogee County.
How do I report a nursing home in Oklahoma?
If a resident is in immediate danger, call 911 first. For everything else, Oklahoma has more than one place to report a concern, and families can contact any or all of them. A report does not require proof, only a reasonable concern.
| Who to contact | What they handle | How to reach them |
|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma State Department of Health, Long-Term Care Service | Complaints about care, conditions, or rule violations inside a licensed nursing home. This is the agency that inspects facilities and issues the citations shown on this page. | (800) 747-8419 or [email protected] |
| Oklahoma Human Services Abuse and Neglect Hotline | Suspected abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Staffed 24 hours a day. | 1-800-522-3511 or online at OKHotline.org |
| Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Office of the Attorney General | Advocacy for residents. An ombudsman can work with the facility to resolve a problem and explain residents’ rights. | (405) 521-6734 or [email protected] |
A complaint to the State Department of Health can lead to a complaint inspection. Citations that result from complaints are marked separately in the federal data, so a family’s report can become part of a facility’s public record.
What are the signs of neglect in a nursing home?
Neglect is often gradual, and families who visit regularly are usually the first to notice it. Warning signs include:
- Bedsores, also called pressure injuries, especially on the heels, hips, or tailbone
- Bruises, cuts, or fractures nobody can explain, or repeated falls
- Sudden weight loss, dehydration, or signs that meals are being missed
- Soiled clothing or bedding, poor hygiene, or a resident left in the same position for long stretches
- Unexpected changes in medication, alertness, or overall condition
- New fear, withdrawal, or agitation, particularly around certain staff
- Staff who discourage visits or avoid leaving you alone with your family member
- Missing money, cards, or personal belongings
One sign on its own does not prove neglect. A pattern, or a sign the facility cannot explain, is worth looking into.
What should I do if I suspect nursing home neglect or abuse?
Start by writing down what you see, with dates and times, and take photos of injuries or conditions when you can. Notes made at the time carry more weight later than memories do.
Ask the facility for an explanation, ideally in writing, and ask for a copy of your family member’s care records. Under federal rules, residents and their legal representatives have the right to see those records. If an injury needs attention, a doctor outside the facility can document it independently.
Then report it to one of the agencies above. If the concern involves a serious injury, a hospital stay, or a death, it is also worth talking to an attorney who handles nursing home cases, because records and evidence are easiest to preserve early. The Law Offices of Jeff Martin reviews these situations at no cost, and you can reach us at 918-728-8888 or through the form on this page.
Data sources. All figures on this page come from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Provider Data Catalog, nursing homes theme, October 2026 release, specifically the Provider Information and Health Deficiencies files. CMS data is in the public domain. Figures reflect inspections completed and published as of the October 2026 refresh and will change as CMS publishes new surveys. Facility counts exclude facilities that were not certified as of that release. Two Oklahoma facilities had no overall star rating published, so rating percentages are calculated on the 281 facilities that did.
FAQs
Not by itself. The overall star rating combines inspection results, staffing levels, and quality measures, and the health inspection portion is graded on a curve within each state. A one-star facility in Oklahoma is being compared to other Oklahoma facilities, not to the national field. The rating is a starting point for questions, not a conclusion.
Every certified nursing home receives a standard comprehensive inspection roughly once every nine to fifteen months. Additional inspections happen when someone files a complaint. Complaint inspections are noted separately in the CMS data, and citations arising from them are flagged as complaint deficiencies.
Turnover measures the percentage of nursing staff who left the facility over a year. High turnover is associated with less continuity of care, because staff who do not know a resident are less likely to notice a change in that resident's condition. CMS publishes a turnover figure for each facility.
A citation is a finding by a state or federal surveyor that a facility failed to meet a federal requirement. It is an official record of what inspectors found on a particular date. Whether a specific resident was harmed, and whether anyone is legally responsible, are separate questions that depend on that resident's own medical records and circumstances.
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