Nursing Home Staffing in Dutchess and Orange: What the CMS Numbers Show

The rule

Public Health Law 2895-b requires nursing homes to provide 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day, with at least 2.2 hours from certified nurse aides and 1.1 hours from licensed nurses. The state checks compliance quarterly against payroll data and can impose penalties of up to $2,000 a day. CMS separately publishes each home's reported staffing hours on Care Compare.

The numbers, home by home

Here is every certified home in the two counties, ranked by CMS's reported total nurse staffing.

Source: CMS Care Compare Provider Information, data as of October 1, 2026.

Why a home can miss on CMS and pass the state test

CMS reports an average over a quarter using its own definitions. New York measures compliance quarter by quarter with its own rules, and it counts aide and licensed nurse hours separately. A home slightly under 3.5 on Care Compare may still meet the state requirement, and the reverse can happen. Treat a shortfall on CMS's numbers as a question to ask, not a verdict.

Turnover tells you as much as hours

Hours measure how much staff time there is. Turnover measures whether the same people are providing it. A home where half the nursing staff leaves each year has a harder time knowing residents' habits, noticing small changes and keeping routines steady. Ask how many aides on each shift come from staffing agencies and how long the night charge nurse has been there.

What staffing stars measure

CMS's staffing rating combines several measures: total nurse staffing hours per resident day, registered nurse hours, weekend staffing and staff turnover, all adjusted for how sick the residents are. A home with very ill residents is expected to staff more heavily. That adjustment is why two homes with similar raw hours can have different staffing stars. Read the stars together with the raw numbers in the table above.

Weekends and nights

Staffing almost always dips on weekends, and CMS publishes a separate weekend figure for each home. A large weekend gap is worth asking about, because falls, missed meals and slow responses tend to cluster when fewer people are on duty. Nights are the other pressure point. Ask how many aides and nurses are on the overnight shift for the unit your parent would live on, and how many residents each aide covers.

Agency staff and consistency

Many homes fill gaps with agency aides and nurses who work shifts across several buildings. Agency staff can be skilled, but they do not know the residents. A home that relies heavily on agency staff may meet its hours while still struggling with consistency. Ask what share of shifts last month were covered by agency staff and whether the home assigns the same aides to the same residents.

Reading the staffing table above

Start with the homes your family is considering and find them in the table. Compare each one's total hours with 3.5 and with the regional median, then look at the RN column, because registered nurses handle assessments, changes in condition and medication oversight. A home with strong total hours but very few RN hours relies heavily on aides and licensed practical nurses. Then look at turnover. A home that is both short on hours and high on turnover deserves especially pointed questions. A home with strong hours and low turnover has two of the most important ingredients for steady care, though only a visit will tell you how those staff treat residents.

Using this on a visit

Visit on a weekend and at a shift change, when staffing is thinnest and handoffs happen. Watch how long call lights stay on. Ask to see the posted daily staffing, which nursing homes must display. And read the home's latest inspection: staffing problems often surface as citations about care that was late or missed.