Friends Nursing Home is certified as a Medicare and Medicaid facility and has been approved to provide these services since 1990-01-01. Medicare covers short-term skilled nursing care (typically up to 100 days after a qualifying hospital stay). Medicaid covers long-term care for residents who meet financial eligibility requirements. Contact the facility at (301) 924-7531 or your local Medicaid office to verify current eligibility.

Friends Nursing Home holds an overall CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) rating of 5 out of 5 stars. This is made up of three components: Health Inspection (4★), Staffing (5★), and Quality of Resident Care (3★). Our independent composite quality score — which uses the raw underlying CMS numbers to break ties between similarly-rated facilities — is 74.2/100, placing it #6314 of 14703 facilities nationally and #107 of 221 in Maryland. Star ratings are a useful starting point, but the composite score and individual sub-ratings give a more complete picture for families comparing facilities.

Each resident at Friends Nursing Home receives a reported average of 4 hours 2 minutes of total nurse staffing per day. This breaks down as: Registered Nurse (RN) coverage — 44 minutes; Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) — 54 minutes; Nurse Aide — 2 hours 24 minutes. On weekends, total nurse staffing is 4 hours 3 minutes per resident per day. The CMS Staffing Rating for this facility is 5 out of 5. The national average for total nursing hours is approximately 3.5 hrs/day. Total nursing staff turnover is 18.6%. Families are encouraged to ask about current staffing schedules during their facility visit.

In the current reporting period, the facility received 8 fine(s) totaling $22,965. No substantiated complaints have been recorded in the available data. In the most recent CMS reporting period, the facility received 8 fine(s) totaling $22,965, and 0 Medicare payment denial(s). Total penalties: 8. The Total Weighted Health Survey Score is 40.0 (lower scores are better). Full inspection history and complaint details are available at medicare.gov/care-compare.

Nationally, Friends Nursing Home ranks 6314th out of 14,703 facilities (composite score: 74.2/100), placing it in the above average nationwide. Within MD, it ranks 107th out of 221 nursing homes. In Sandy Spring, it ranks 2nd out of 2 facilities. Among facilities sharing its ZIP code, it ranks 2nd of 2. For 2026 staffing: total nurse hours rank #4,632 nationally and RN hours rank #4,498 nationally (#93 in MD). Our composite quality score of 74.2/100 weighs health inspections, quality of resident care, staffing hours, compliance record, and five-year performance trends — giving a more complete picture than CMS star ratings alone, which can place hundreds of facilities in the same 5-star bucket. To browse and compare all nursing homes in Sandy Spring, visit: https://nursinghomesnearme.org/maryland/sandy-spring/