Pathway to Regulatory Compliance: A Special Focus Facility's Road to Graduation

In February 2024, Affinity Health Services was engaged by a skilled nursing facility in Wilmington, DE, following the issuance of a required state monitoring mandate by the Delaware Dept. of Health and Social Services, Division of Health Care Quality. This requirement was imposed due to the facility’s ongoing non-compliance with federal regulations and designation as a Special Focus Facility (SFF) in 2022.

Between August 2022 and February 2024, the facility underwent three full Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) surveys, each resulting in 12 to 19 citations, including Immediate Jeopardy-level deficiencies. Due to the severity and repetition of deficiencies, the facility was placed on a termination track with CMS, prompting the state agency to require third-party oversight and monitoring.

Following Affinity’s intervention, the facility demonstrated marked improvement. Three subsequent surveys yielded fewer than 11 federal citations total, all with a scope and severity of “E” or lower. The facility successfully met the CMS graduation criteria from the SFF program and officially exited the Special Focus Facility list in July 2025.

You can read more and download our case study in the October edition of The Affinity Advantage: https://conta.cc/48KjwKY

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