Iowa’s nursing home inspectors issued more citations for insufficient staffing last year than regulators in any other state in the nation, an Iowa Capital Dispatch review of federal data shows.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services data show that 66 Iowa nursing homes were cited at least once for insufficient nursing staff during fiscal year 2026. With seven Iowa homes cited for the violation three times, and seven more cited twice, the total number of insufficient staffing citations issued in the state was 87, the data show.
That places Iowa — which has far fewer nursing homes than more populous states — at the top of the rankings for insufficient-staffing citations…