Friendship Village Retirement is certified as a Medicare and Medicaid facility and has been approved to provide these services since 1968-08-15. 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 (319) 291-8100 or your local Medicaid office to verify current eligibility.

Friendship Village Retirement 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 (2★). Our independent composite quality score — which uses the raw underlying CMS numbers to break ties between similarly-rated facilities — is 74.9/100, placing it #5979 of 14703 facilities nationally and #149 of 390 in Iowa. 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 Friendship Village Retirement receives a reported average of 5 hours 12 minutes of total nurse staffing per day. This breaks down as: Registered Nurse (RN) coverage — 47 minutes; Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) — 1 hour 2 minutes; Nurse Aide — 3 hours 23 minutes. On weekends, total nurse staffing is 4 hours 29 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 33.3%. Families are encouraged to ask about current staffing schedules during their facility visit.

The facility has received 9 fine(s) over the 5-year period, totaling $392,598. 2 substantiated complaints were recorded across the 5-year period — families should request details from the facility or review CMS inspection findings. In the most recent CMS reporting period, the facility received 0 fine(s) totaling $0, and 0 Medicare payment denial(s). Total penalties: 0. The Total Weighted Health Survey Score is 14.0 (lower scores are better). Full inspection history and complaint details are available at medicare.gov/care-compare.

Nationally, Friendship Village Retirement ranks 5979th out of 14,703 facilities (composite score: 74.9/100), placing it in the above average nationwide. Within IA, it ranks 149th out of 390 nursing homes. In Waterloo, it ranks 1st out of 6 facilities. Among facilities sharing its ZIP code, it ranks 1st of 2. For 2026 staffing: total nurse hours rank #919 nationally and RN hours rank #3,791 nationally (#127 in IA). Our composite quality score of 74.9/100 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 Waterloo, visit: https://nursinghomesnearme.org/iowa/waterloo/