Nursing Home Database — MCP

Public documentation for the Nursing Home Database Model Context Protocol server. It exposes US skilled nursing facility search, detail, ownership, and owner portfolio data — including CMS nurse hours, turnover, and inspection scores — to AI assistants and other MCP clients.

Website: nursinghomedatabase.com
Contact: Contact page

MCP endpoint

Transport	Streamable HTTP (JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTPS)
URL	https://mcp.nursinghomedatabase.com/mcp
Auth	None required (public access)
Server name	nhd-mcp
Version	1.4.0

Send a standard MCP session: initialize → notifications/initialized (optional; may receive HTTP 204) → tools/list → tools/call as needed.

Tools

Tool	Purpose
search_facilities	Finds certified SNFs near an address (or by name/city/state/ownership type) so you can shortlist more than three homes using hours, turnover, and inspection scores
search_facilities_by_ownership	Same search, with CMS ownership type required (For profit / Non profit / Government, or an exact value from list_distinct_values)
summarize_facilities	National or grouped stats (n, mean, min, max; optional median) for nurse hours, turnover, ratings, beds, fines. Prefer this over paging search_facilities
get_facility	Opens one home by CMS provider number or site slug, with the same hours, turnover, inspection, beds, and penalty fields as search
compare_facilities	Same schema for up to 25 CCNs/slugs — prefer this over looping get_facility (MCP is 60 req/min)
get_facility_changes	Field-level diff of one home across two CMS monthly files. Defaults to the latest file versus the prior snapshot. Not owner names
get_facility_ownership	Lists who owns a home and in what role
search_owners	Finds nursing-home owners by name
get_owner	Opens an owner’s portfolio of certified SNFs
list_file_dates	Lists CMS monthly snapshot dates in the database so you can look at a prior month
list_distinct_values	Lists distinct CMS values and counts for a ProviderInfo field (ownership, state, sffstatus, chainname, …)
get_data_freshness	Reports when the latest CMS file was published and how many rows it contains

Exact inputSchema objects are returned in tools/list.

Historical months (filedate)

By default every lookup uses the latest CMS monthly file. To retrieve a prior month:

1. Call list_file_dates (returns current, filedates newest first, and known_gaps for unpublished months).
2. Pass one of those dates as filedate (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM) on search_facilities, search_facilities_by_ownership, summarize_facilities, compare_facilities, get_facility, get_facility_ownership, search_owners, get_owner, or list_distinct_values. get_facility_changes does not take filedate; pass from and to.

CMS snapshots are stored as the first of the month (YYYY-MM-01). A value like 2026-07 or 2026-07-15 is normalized to 2026-07-01. Unknown dates return a validation error — call list_file_dates rather than guessing.

search_facilities

Finds certified SNFs near an address so you can shortlist more than three homes using hours, turnover, and inspection scores. You can also search by name, city, state, or ZIP.

Parameter	Type	Description
q	string	Free-text facility name
address	string	Origin address for distance search (e.g. 150 Corporate Woods Drive, Magnolia, TX 77354)
city	string	City filter
state	string	State filter
zip	string	ZIP code filter
radius_miles	number	Straight-line radius in miles; defaults to 25 when address is provided
min_overall_rating	integer	Minimum CMS overall star rating (already on REST; also on this MCP tool)
max_overall_rating	integer	Maximum CMS overall star rating (already on REST; also on this MCP tool)
abuse_icon	string	Filter by CMS abuse icon (Y / N, true / false) (already on REST; also on this MCP tool)
sffstatus	string	When set, keep homes that have a CMS Special Focus Facility (or candidate) status (already on REST; also on this MCP tool)
ownership	string	CMS ownership type (ProviderInfo.ownership). Case-insensitive. Prefixes For profit, Non profit, and Government match that kind. Call list_distinct_values with field=ownership for the 13 exact values
sort	string	Sort key (see Sort keys below)
limit	integer	Max results
offset	integer	Pagination offset
filedate	string	Optional CMS monthly snapshot from list_file_dates (defaults to the latest month)

If the supplied address cannot be resolved, the API returns an address-specific validation error.

Facility payload (search and detail)

search_facilities (each items[] row) and get_facility (facility) return the same richer object, so a shortlist does not require a detail call per home.

Identity, location, and CMS star ratings are included (provnum, web, provname, lbn, address, city, state, zip, latitude, longitude, phone, overall_rating, survey_rating, quality_rating, staffing_rating, public urls). Decision fields use CMS keys:

Key	Meaning
tothrd	Total nurse hours per resident per day (HPRD)
rnhrd	RN hours per resident per day
totalnumberofnursestaffhoursperresidentperdayontheweekend	Weekend total nurse HPRD
registerednursehoursperresidentperdayontheweekend	Weekend RN HPRD
totalnursingstaffturnover	Nursing staff turnover
registerednurseturnover	RN turnover
numberofadministratorswhohaveleftthenursinghome	Administrators who have left the nursing home
weighted_all_cycles_score	Weighted health-inspection score (all cycles)
bedcert	Certified beds
restot	Residents in certified beds
occupancy	Occupancy (residents / certified beds)
fine_tot	Total fines (dollars)
fine_cnt	Number of fines
abuse_icon	CMS abuse icon
sffstatus	Special Focus Facility status
chain_id	Chain identifier
chain_name	Chain name
ownership	CMS ownership type (e.g. For profit - Corporation)
oldsurvey	Flag (Y/N): most recent standard health inspection is more than two years old
cycle_1_survey_date	Date of the most recent standard health inspection

Distance (straight-line miles, not driving minutes)

When search_facilities is called with address:

• distance_miles is straight-line Haversine miles from that origin to the facility.
• distance is kept as an alias of the same number.

These values are not driving minutes or road miles. For driving minutes, use maps.google_dir / maps.apple_dir on the row, or pass the coordinates to a mapping tool.

Sort keys

Pass sort on search_facilities (and on GET /api/v1/nh/facilities). Default is overall_rating (stars, descending) when sort is omitted. Use sort=distance for nearest-first when searching from an address.

sort value	Alias	Order
overall_rating		Stars descending (higher better)
survey_rating		Stars descending
quality_rating		Stars descending
staffing_rating		Stars descending
distance		Miles ascending (nearest first)
tothrd	total_nurse_hours	Hours descending (higher better)
totalnursingstaffturnover	nurse_turnover	Turnover ascending (lower better)
weighted_all_cycles_score	survey_score	Inspection score ascending (lower better)

search_facilities_by_ownership

Same result schema as search_facilities, with ownership required. Use this when the question is “find government / nonprofit / for-profit homes in …”. Combine with state, city, zip, or address. Call list_distinct_values with field=ownership first for the exact CMS strings.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
ownership	string	yes	CMS ownership type (prefix or exact value)
state	string	no	Two-letter state
city	string	no	City filter
zip	string	no	ZIP filter
address	string	no	Origin address for distance search
filedate	string	no	CMS monthly snapshot from list_file_dates

summarize_facilities

Aggregate numeric CMS ProviderInfo fields across certified SNFs. Prefer this over paging search_facilities for national or grouped stats (government vs private hours, state means, etc.). Means are facility-equal (not bed-weighted). Facilities missing a metric are excluded from that metric’s n/mean/min/max only — values are not imputed. Not causal. Not a substitute for get_facility on a named home.