Skilled nursing
Credential tracking software for skilled nursing facilities
Thirty-one federal requirements are in the product before you enter a single date, and every one of them names the F-tag or the regulation it comes from. Washington adds four more. Here is the whole list, what a surveyor asks about, and the three things we deliberately do not do.
What a nursing home has to prove, and to whom
The audience is a state survey agency working on behalf of CMS, arriving unannounced roughly every nine to fifteen months, plus whenever somebody complains. Most of what it asks about lives in the resident record. A narrow and well-defined part of it lives in the personnel file, and that part is nearly all dates.
The surveyor wants to see that anybody whose job requires a licence holds a current one (F839), that every nurse aide is on the state registry and that you received the registry check before their first shift rather than during their second week (F728 and F729), that each aide has had a performance review in the last twelve months and at least twelve hours of in-service in the same period (F730 and F947), that the annual training topics under 42 CFR 483.95 have happened for everyone including contractors and volunteers (F940 to F949), that whoever runs the kitchen is qualified to (F801), and that the infection preventionist finished the specialised training the role requires (F882).
These are not obscure tags: the family accounts for 11,028 citations since 2017, and 37.8% of certified nursing homes have taken at least one. The guide to the 24 CMS F-tags that are really a credential-tracking problem works through each of them, and the state-by-state figures show how far the odds move depending on which surveyors visit you.
Then there is the audience that never sets foot in the building. The OIG exclusion list produces a repayment demand rather than a plan of correction. One excluded LPN cost Walnut Creek Nursing Center $243,000 in January 2025, and nineteen skilled nursing facilities paid $1.57 million between them in May 2025. The list refreshes monthly, which is why the screening is monthly, and it is the cheapest thing on this page to get right.
On top of that sits your state: its background check and re-check interval, its TB rule, and in about half the states some number of aide continuing education hours beyond the federal twelve.
What Credolex loads on the first day
Thirty-one rows, before you type anything, each naming the tag or section it comes from. Thirteen of them are marked as the ones whose absence stops somebody working today or stops you billing for them: a licence, the registry check, the exclusion screen, the I-9, orientation. Those are the short list you start on. The other eighteen are real, citable and genuinely required, and they stay folded away until you want them, because a screen showing a lapsed RN licence and an overdue quality assurance module at the same volume teaches people to stop reading it.
Licences and credentials
| Requirement | Says who | How often |
|---|---|---|
| RN license | F839 · 42 CFR 483.70(e) | Runs with the state licence, in most states every two years |
| LPN license | F839 · 42 CFR 483.70(e) | Every two years |
| Nurse aide certification | F728 · 42 CFR 483.35(d) | Every year |
| Professional license, therapy and social work | F839 · 42 CFR 483.70(e) | Every two years |
| Nursing home administrator license | F836 · 42 CFR 483.70(a) | Every year |
| Food service director credential | F801 · 42 CFR 483.60(a)(2) | Every three years, and only when no dietitian works full time |
| Activity professional qualification | F680 · 42 CFR 483.24(c)(2) | Every two years |
Screening
| Requirement | Says who | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Nurse aide registry verification | F729 · 42 CFR 483.35(d)(4) | Before the first shift, then every two years |
| Federal exclusion list screening | OIG Special Advisory Bulletin | Every month |
| Abuse registry and adverse action screening | F606 · 42 CFR 483.12(a)(3) | Every year |
Health and immunisation
| Requirement | Says who | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Tuberculosis baseline screening | CDC 2019 via 42 CFR 483.80(a)(2) | Once, within fourteen days of hire |
| Tuberculosis education | CDC 2019 | Every year |
| Hepatitis B offered or declined | 29 CFR 1910.1030(f) | Once, within ten working days of assignment |
| Influenza vaccination or declination | SNF quality reporting | Every year |
| Respirator fit test | 29 CFR 1910.134(f) | Every year, and on any change of make, model or size |
| Basic life support certification | F678 · 42 CFR 483.24(a)(3) | Every two years |
Training
| Requirement | Says who | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation | F940 · 42 CFR 483.95 | Once, within seven days, before working unsupervised |
| Abuse, neglect and dementia training | F943 · 42 CFR 483.95(c) | Every year |
| Resident rights training | F942 · 42 CFR 483.95(b) | Every year |
| Infection prevention and control training | F945 · 42 CFR 483.95(e) | Every year |
| Quality assurance training | F944 · 42 CFR 483.95(d) | Every year |
| Compliance and ethics training | F946 · 42 CFR 483.95(f) | Every year, for operators of five or more facilities |
| Behavioral health training | F949 · 42 CFR 483.95(i) | Every year |
| Effective communication training | F941 · 42 CFR 483.95(a) | Every year, direct care staff only |
| Emergency preparedness training | 42 CFR 483.73(d)(1) | Every year |
| Bloodborne pathogens training | 29 CFR 1910.1030(g) | Every year |
| Hazard communication training | 29 CFR 1910.1200(h) | Once at assignment, again when a new hazard arrives |
| Nurse aide in-service, twelve hours | F947 · 42 CFR 483.95(g) | Twelve hours in every twelve months, from each aide’s own hire date |
| Nurse aide performance review | F730 · 42 CFR 483.35(d)(7) | Every year |
The employment file
| Requirement | Says who | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Form I-9 | 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(1)(ii) | Once, within three business days of the first day of work |
| HIPAA privacy training | 45 CFR 164.530(b)(1) | Once, within thirty days, and again on a material change |
Washington, on top of all of the above
Washington is the only state overlay loaded today. Four more rows, and where they conflict with a federal row the state one supersedes it rather than editing it, so the federal row is still there and still says what it says.
| Requirement | Says who | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Tuberculosis test, annual | WAC 388-97-1380 | Within three days of employment, then every year |
| Background check | WAC 388-97-1800 | Every two years |
| Food worker card | WAC 246-217 | First card two years, renewals three |
| Administrator continuing education | WAC 246-843-130 | Thirty-six hours in every two years, including two of health equity |
The research for the other eleven largest nursing home states — California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina and Oregon — is done and is not loaded, and which one is built next is decided by who asks. Seven of the rules we researched are still marked unconfirmed, meaning nobody here has read the regulation end to end, and those will not ship until somebody has.
What we do not do
We are not a learning management system. Credolex records that the twelve hours happened, on what dates, in what topics, and against which aide’s anniversary. It does not deliver the course, host the video, mark the quiz or print the certificate. Whether your abuse-prevention module lives in Relias or in a binder in the staff room, it stays there and only the completion date comes here. That is deliberate: the suites that bundle tracking with an LMS sell the LMS on a three or five year contract and throw the tracking in.
We do not verify anything with anybody. Credolex does not query Nursys, your state nurse aide registry or the OIG list. It holds the date you checked, the document you saved, and the date it needs checking again. Calling a reminder a verification would be the kind of thing that gets a building cited.
We are not scheduling, payroll or an HR file. No shift board, no time clock, no performance management. It is the credential and training dates, the documents behind them and the record of who accepted what.
And Credolex is not regulatory advice. Every citation on this page is there so you can go and read the rule; the facility stays responsible for its own compliance.
Questions people ask about this
Does Credolex check the nurse aide registry for us?
No. It holds the date you ran the check, the document you saved from it, and it tells you when the two-year re-check under F729 is coming. The check itself is still yours to run against your state registry. We would rather say that plainly than let you find out during a survey.
Which states are loaded today?
Washington. The federal 42 CFR 483 baseline applies everywhere and is loaded for every facility, so a nursing home in any state starts with thirty-one rows; Washington adds four more. The research for the eleven other largest nursing home states is finished and waiting, and which one is built next is decided by which states the facilities requesting access are in.
Does this replace our in-service training system?
No, and it is not trying to. Credolex tracks whether the twelve hours under F947 happened and when, against each aide’s own hire date. Whoever delivers the training keeps delivering it. If you do not have an LMS at all, that is fine too: a sign-in sheet and a date typed into Credolex satisfies the tracking half of the problem, which is the half that gets cited.
Can it track contractors, agency staff and volunteers?
Yes, and it should. F940 and F943 apply to contractors and volunteers by their own words, and the abuse registry screening under F606 covers employees, contractors, volunteers and students alike. They go on the roster the same way an employee does. Whether the agency also holds a copy is not the surveyor’s problem, or yours.
What does it cost for a nursing home?
Free up to ten employees with every feature, then priced by the size of the building rather than per seat: $39 a month to twenty-five employees, $69 to fifty, $129 to a hundred, $229 to two hundred. A 100-bed building is usually the $129 tier. Adding your administrator, your scheduler or a second coordinator costs nothing. The pricing page has the full breakdown.