Best nursing homes in Washington, DC
These are the 17 CMS-certified nursing homes in Washington, District of Columbia, ranked best-first by the home’s CMS overall star rating. When two homes tie, we break the tie by the health-inspection rating — the domain assigned by independent state surveyors rather than self-reported by the facility. Nothing on this page is sponsored: no home pays to appear or to rank higher.
Check the certification chip before anything else. Most homes here are certified for both Medicare and Medicaid, but CMS certifies some for only one — and a 5-star home that doesn’t take your programme is not an option, however it ranks. Certification is not a quality measure and we don’t rank on it; we label it, because it decides whether the rest of the row matters to you.
How to read this: a high overall star can be lifted by self-reported quality-measure and payroll-staffing scores, so we surface the inspection rating and any serious citations, fines, abuse flags or ownership changes right on the row. A lower-ranked home with a clean inspection record can be the better fit than a higher-ranked one carrying red flags — open each profile.
- 1Medicaid only — no MedicareNo major red flags on record4200 Harewood Road NE, Washington, DC
- 2Medicare & Medicaid certifiedNo major red flags on record5425 Western Ave NW, Washington, DC
- 3Medicare & Medicaid certified1 serious citation4901 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
- 4Medicare & Medicaid certified1 immediate-jeopardy citation$8,827 in federal fines5255 Loughboro Road NW, Washington, DC
- 5Medicare & Medicaid certified3 serious citationsSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection6200 Oregon Ave NW, Washington, DC
- 6Medicare & Medicaid certified1 serious citation$47,684 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection1380 Southern Ave SE, Washington, DC
- 7Medicare & Medicaid certified1 immediate-jeopardy citation$48,887 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 3★ above inspection901 First Street NW, Washington, DC
- 8Medicare & Medicaid certifiedNo major red flags on record1731 Bunker Hill Road NE, Washington, DC
- 9Medicare & Medicaid certified$39,419 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection3050 Military Road NW, Washington, DC
- 10Medicare & Medicaid certified1 immediate-jeopardy citation2131 O Street NW, Washington, DC
- 11Medicare & Medicaid certified4 serious citations$97,426 in federal fines1818 Newton St. NW, Washington, DC
- 12Medicare & Medicaid certified1 immediate-jeopardy citation$112,756 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 3★ above inspection223 7th Street NE, Washington, DC
- 13Medicare & Medicaid certified3 immediate-jeopardy citations$214,785 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 3★ above inspection2601 18th Street NE, Washington, DC
- 14Medicare & Medicaid certified3 immediate-jeopardy citations$236,002 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection4601 Martin Luther King Jr Avenue SW, Washington, DC
- 15Medicare & Medicaid certified3 immediate-jeopardy citations$167,394 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 4★ above inspection725 Buchanan St., NE, Washington, DC
- 16Medicare & Medicaid certifiedAbuse icon2 immediate-jeopardy citations$97,607 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 4★ above inspection5000 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave. NE, Washington, DC
- 17Medicare & Medicaid certifiedAbuse icon8 immediate-jeopardy citations$384,200 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 3★ above inspection2425 25th Street SE, Washington, DC
Keep looking: read the District of Columbia state guides — nursing homes and assisted living — for how the state’s system works, find the closest homes to your ZIP or location, filter every facility by rating, cost and inspection record, or compare any of these side by side. Or see assisted living in Washington, DC. Back to every District of Columbia city.
How we rank
We order this list strictly by each home’s CMS overall star rating — the government’s own rating, not a score of our own. When two homes carry the same overall rating we break the tie by the health-inspection rating — the domain scored by independent state surveyors rather than self-reported — and then alphabetically. Homes with no rating on file sink to the bottom.
We should be straight with you about a tension here. The CMS overall star is a blend of three domains, and elsewhere on this site we argue that blend can be misleading: the staffing and quality-measure components lean on data facilities report about themselves, and they can lift a home’s overall star above what inspectors actually found. We still sort by it, for one reason — it is the only ranking of nursing homes the government publishes, and the alternative is us deciding which domain ought to count, which is our opinion dressed up as an official rating. We won’t do that. (It is the same reason we refuse to rank assisted living at all.) So instead of quietly re-sorting to our taste, we un-blend the star on every row: the inspection rating sits next to the overall one, and serious citations, fines and abuse flags are on the row too. Where the two disagree, trust the inspection record and the citations — and treat our sort order as the government’s claim, not ours. See our methodology.
No home pays to appear here or to rank higher. There is no sponsored placement, no paid listing, and no referral fee. The page carries ordinary Google display advertising, sold against the page by Google: it cannot move a home up or down this list, and no advertiser sees who you are. The ratings, citations and fines are assigned by government inspectors (CMS), not by Eldercare Lens.
Common questions
Does Medicaid pay here?
How current is this data?
What does the star rating mean?
Ratings and citations are assigned by government inspectors (CMS), not by Eldercare Lens. The absence of a citation does not guarantee the absence of problems. Always verify with the facility and your state Long-Term Care Ombudsman.