By Baltimore Senior Advisor Care Team · October 11, 2026
Of 43 Baltimore County nursing homes with CMS ratings, 15 hold five stars overall and 7 hold one star. The median home logged 15 deficiencies at its last standard survey and reports 3.71 nurse staffing hours per resident per day.
How are Baltimore County nursing homes rated?
CMS's overall rating for the county's 43 rated nursing homes breaks down like this:
| CMS overall rating | Nursing homes |
|---|---|
| 5 stars | 15 |
| 4 stars | 5 |
| 3 stars | 9 |
| 2 stars | 7 |
| 1 star | 7 |
The county's mean is 3.3 stars. These are CMS's ratings, built from health inspections, staffing and quality measures -- not ours.
Which Baltimore County nursing homes have five stars?
Five-star overall ratings in the current CMS release: Advanced Rehab At Autumn Lake Healthcare (Lutherville); Autumn Lake Healthcare At Parkville (Baltimore); Autumn Lake Healthcare At Pikesville (Pikesville); Broadmead (Cockeysville); Charlestown Community Inc (Catonsville); Chestnut Grn Hlth Ctr Blakehur (Towson); Complete Care At Multi Medical Center LLC (Towson); Edenwald (Towson); Future Care Cherrywood (Reisterstown); Future Care Northpoint (Baltimore); Future Care Old Court (Randallstown); North Oaks Communities (Baltimore); Oak Crest Village (Parkville); Pickersgill Retirement Community (Towson); St. Joseph's Nursing Home (Catonsville).
Several sit on continuing care campuses -- life-plan communities in Catonsville, Parkville, Cockeysville and Towson -- where nursing beds may be reserved first for the campus's own residents. Ask about direct admission from outside before counting on a bed.
What about staffing and citations?
The median Baltimore County home reports 3.71 total nurse staffing hours per resident per day; the range runs from 3.16 to 6.85. At the most recent standard survey, the median home received 15 health deficiencies, with a range of 0 to 50.
Higher staffing hours are associated with better outcomes in the research behind CMS's staffing rating, but the number to ask about on a tour is concrete: how many residents each nurse aide covers on evenings and nights on the unit your parent would live on.
How should a family use the ratings?
Use them to build a shortlist, not to make the decision. A five-star home can be full, can be far from family, or can be strong in long-term care but less so in short-stay rehab. Check the short-stay and long-stay quality ratings separately, read the latest citations, and visit at a mealtime.
Each facility's page in our nursing home directory shows its ratings, citations, staffing and fines from the same CMS release, alongside its Maryland license number.
Where are Baltimore County's nursing homes located?
The county's nursing homes cluster near its hospitals and along its main corridors: Towson and the York Road corridor, Catonsville on the west side, Pikesville and Randallstown along Reisterstown and Liberty roads, and the eastern communities of Rosedale, Essex and Parkville. Many carry Baltimore mailing addresses even though they are county facilities.
| Area | CMS-rated nursing homes |
|---|---|
| Baltimore | 12 |
| Catonsville | 8 |
| Towson | 8 |
| Randallstown | 3 |
| Cockeysville | 2 |
| Timonium | 2 |
| Lutherville | 1 |
| Pikesville | 1 |
If a parent will need regular visits, proximity to the family member who visits most often usually matters more than a one-star difference.
Do continuing care campuses admit from outside?
Some of the county's highest-rated nursing units belong to continuing care retirement communities, whose nursing beds primarily serve the campus's own residents. Some accept outside admissions for short-term rehab or long-term care when beds are open; others rarely do.
If a five-star campus appears on your shortlist, call its admissions office and ask directly whether it accepts residents who do not live on campus, and whether it accepts Maryland Medicaid for long-term care. The answer narrows the list quickly.
For short-term rehab after a hospital stay, the hospital's case manager will know which facilities have accepted the referral, which is the real starting list regardless of ratings.
How should you weigh short-stay versus long-stay quality?
CMS splits its quality measures into short-stay residents -- mostly people in rehab after a hospital stay -- and long-stay residents who live in the home. The measures differ: short-stay looks at outcomes such as improvement in function and rehospitalization, while long-stay looks at falls with injury, pressure ulcers, weight loss and antipsychotic use among residents.
A Baltimore County home can be very good at rehab and average at long-term care, or the reverse. Match the rating to the reason for admission. For a hip replacement rehab stay, the short-stay rating matters most; for a permanent move, the long-stay rating and staffing matter more.
Both ratings are on each facility page in our directory, next to the inspection citations.
What about Medicaid acceptance?
Most Baltimore County nursing homes are certified for both Medicare and Medicaid, but a home may limit how many Medicaid residents it admits directly. Families paying privately at first should ask whether the resident can stay when funds run out and Medicaid begins -- the answer is usually yes for dually certified homes, but confirm it in writing.
What does a nursing home cost in Baltimore County?
CareScout's 2025 Maryland medians are $12,927 a month for a semi-private room and $14,448 for a private room. Medicare pays for limited skilled stays after a qualifying inpatient admission; Maryland Medicaid covers long-term care for residents who qualify medically and financially.
Frequently asked questions
How many nursing homes are in Baltimore County, MD?
43 Baltimore County nursing homes have CMS ratings in the current release.
How many Baltimore County nursing homes have five stars?
15 have a five-star CMS overall rating.
What is a good nurse staffing level?
There is no single cutoff; compare hours per resident per day across homes and ask about aide-to-resident ratios on each shift.
Who rates nursing homes?
CMS publishes the official star ratings on Medicare Care Compare.
Are CMS ratings the same as a state rating?
No. Maryland does not issue its own star rating for nursing homes; the stars on Care Compare are CMS's, built from state survey results, staffing data and quality measures.
How often do CMS ratings change?
CMS refreshes Care Compare data monthly, so a home's stars can move after a new inspection, a staffing data update or a change in quality measures.
Can a nursing home with one star be a reasonable choice?
Sometimes, if the low rating reflects old problems that have been corrected, but read the latest citations and staffing data and ask the administrator what changed before deciding.
