K-Tags in Nursing Homes: The Electrical Life Safety Code Tags Explained

K-tags are the numbered deficiency codes CMS surveyors use when they cite a nursing home under the Life Safety Code, the fire and building safety side of a survey. The electrical ones run from K911 through K921, and in CMS data from October 2023 through September 2026, 43.9% of U.S. nursing homes (6,445 facilities) were cited for at least one of them. This guide explains what each electrical tag covers, how often it is cited, and what to do about it.

What a K-tag is, and how it differs from an F-tag

A skilled nursing facility is surveyed in two parts. The health survey looks at resident care, staffing and services, and its deficiencies carry F-tags. The Life Safety Code survey is a separate inspection of the building and its systems, and its deficiencies carry K-tags. The code behind the K-tags is NFPA 101 (the Life Safety Code), and its electrical requirements draw on NFPA 99, the standard for health care facilities.

The difference matters because the two sets of tags are cited by different surveyors, are tracked separately in CMS data, and are fixed by different people. A K-tag is rarely a nursing problem. It is a maintenance, vendor and documentation problem, which is why it lands on the maintenance director and administrator. For how the two surveys relate, see F-tags and PCREE survey deficiencies.

The electrical K-tags at a glance

Six K-tags make up the electrical group. The figures below come from the CMS Provider Data Catalog (Nursing Homes, Fire Safety Deficiencies and Provider Information, processed October 1, 2026) for Life Safety Code surveys from October 2023 through September 2026, as published on our PCREE testing facts page and tag-specific articles.

Source: CMS Provider Data Catalog, Nursing Homes, Fire Safety Deficiencies and Provider Information (processed October 1, 2026), Life Safety Code surveys from October 2023 through September 2026.

Two patterns stand out. First, the three most-cited tags (K920, K914, K921) are all about things that change day to day: what is plugged in, whether receptacles still hold a ground, and whether devices have been tested on schedule. Second, every one of these takes weeks to correct, so a citation at survey time means a long stretch of open correction work rather than a quick fix.

K920: power strips and extension cords

K920 is the most-cited electrical tag: 4,188 nursing homes (28.5%) were cited in three years. It is usually triggered by an ordinary item, such as a power strip behind a resident’s TV, an extension cord running to a space heater or fan, or a strip daisy-chained to another. Scope is mostly isolated or pattern (38% D, 45% E, 16% F), but it comes back: 24.5% of cited facilities were cited again on a later survey. That makes the audit routine more important than the one-time cleanup. Our K920 guide covers what is and isn’t allowed, and the power strip article covers the CMS waiver.

K914: bedside receptacle testing

K914 is the second most-cited electrical tag, with 1,773 nursing homes cited (12.1%) and 1,946 citations in total. It concerns testing the receptacles at patient bed locations, and surveyors ask for the dated test records. It is cited as widespread far more often than K920: 72% of K914 citations were scope F, because a missing record usually applies to every bed location in the building. Of cited facilities, 9.4% were cited again on a later survey. The K914 guide walks through what the test record should show, and receptacle testing in patient rooms explains the work itself.

K921: patient care electrical equipment testing

K921 is the tag that applies directly to PCREE (Patient Care Related Electrical Equipment) testing. 1,365 of 14,686 nursing homes (9.3%) were cited for it, and 76% of those citations were rated scope F (widespread), because missing test records usually affect every device in the building. The median K921 correction took 37 days.

Surveyors typically ask to see a device inventory, test records with dates and results, and evidence that failed devices were removed or repaired and retested. Facilities that cannot produce those records on survey day are the ones cited. The K921 article covers the requirement in detail, and how long K921 takes to correct shows what a cited facility is in for.

K911, K912 and K919: the less common tags

K911 (electrical systems), K912 (receptacle grounding) and K919 (use of electrical equipment) are cited less often, between 3.7% and 6.2% of facilities, but they tend to appear alongside the big three. A surveyor who finds a missing cover plate or a damaged cord will usually look harder at receptacle and device records. K919 also has a repeat problem: 15.6% of facilities cited for it were cited again, often because resident-owned appliances come in through admissions without an inspection. The K911, K912 and K919 guide has the details by state.

Why testing by a qualified biomedical technician matters

It is easy to treat K-tags as paperwork. The reason the tags exist is that residents depend on powered equipment: beds, lifts, oxygen concentrators, feeding and infusion pumps, suction machines and pressure-relief mattresses. A device with a broken ground, high leakage current or a damaged cord can harm a resident or staff member, and the people who use it every day cannot see those faults.

That is the difference between a visual check and a test. A qualified biomedical technician uses calibrated test equipment to measure things like ground resistance and leakage current against the limits in NFPA 99 and the manufacturer’s requirements, and writes down the results. A maintenance walk-through can catch a frayed cord, but it cannot measure leakage current. For residents who are dependent on equipment, such as those on ventilators or on powered mattresses for wound care, that measurement is the safety margin. It is also what produces the dated, device-level record a surveyor wants to see. Understanding leakage current explains what is being measured, and our in-house vs. vendor calculator helps you weigh who should do the testing.

What multi-facility operators should do

For a regional or corporate team, K-tags are a portfolio risk, not a building-by-building one. The same gaps, such as inconsistent inventories, different vendors with different report formats and no shared calendar, produce citations in several buildings at once. Two steps help most:

1. Find your exposure. The chain electrical citation report shows how an operator’s facilities compare on electrical K-tags in CMS data, so you can see which buildings to prioritize.
2. Standardize the program. One report format, one schedule and one point of contact across buildings make survey-day records easy to produce. Our multi-facility PCREE testing program is built for this, and this article explains why consistency matters. County, state and health-system homes that buy through a formal process can use the procurement packet.

What surveyors look for on survey day

Electrical K-tags are found two ways: by observation and by record review. On the walk-through, the surveyor looks at what is visible in resident rooms and common areas: power strips and cords (K920), damaged or loose receptacles and missing cover plates (K911, K912), and resident-owned appliances in use (K919). In the document review, the surveyor asks for the records behind the building’s equipment: receptacle test results (K914) and patient care device testing records (K921).

The record review is where facilities lose the most ground, because a record is either on the shelf or it is not. A strong K921 record is device-level. For each device it shows an identifier, the date tested, who tested it, the measurements taken, a pass or fail result, and what happened to anything that failed. The sample PCREE report shows what that looks like, and the PCREE testing form guide lists what each test record should include.

Five mistakes that turn into citations

The same handful of problems explain most electrical K-tags, and none of them is exotic.

• No single owner. Testing slips when administration, maintenance and nursing each assume someone else has it. Who owns PCREE testing lays out a workable split.
• An incomplete inventory. You cannot show every device was tested if you do not know how many devices you have. Rental, loaner and resident-owned equipment are the usual gaps (see rental and loaner equipment and resident-owned equipment).
• Records that cannot be found. Testing was done, but the results are in a vendor’s email or a binder in a former employee’s office. A surveyor treats that as no record.
• Testing after a repair is skipped. A device that has been repaired or opened needs to be retested before it returns to service. See post-repair PCREE testing.
• Cleanup without a routine. Facilities remove power strips the week before survey and find them back a month later. The repeat rates above (24.5% for K920, 15.6% for K919) reflect that.

What a citation costs in time

A K-tag is not a single event. After a citation, the facility submits a plan of correction, completes the fixes, and prepares evidence for a revisit. The CMS median time to correct runs from 26 to 41 days depending on the tag, and the middle of that range is where the testing-related tags sit (37 days for K914 and K921). Many facilities spend that time scrambling to find a vendor, inventory devices and test everything at once, which is slower and more expensive than doing it on a schedule.

The practical lesson is to treat the plan of correction as the last resort, not the first plan. A facility that already has a current inventory, recent test records and a standing vendor can usually answer a surveyor’s request on the spot. If you want to see where your facility stands today, the readiness assessment scores your PCREE program in about ten questions.

Rates vary a lot by state

Citation rates are not evenly spread. For K920, the highest rates in CMS data were in Washington (84.5%), Kansas (71.3%), California (66.6%) and Nebraska (60.0%). For K914, the highest were in Maryland (40.3%), Maine (37.2%), Washington (32.1%), Hawaii (30.2%) and Nevada (28.8%). Some of that difference reflects how individual state survey agencies apply the code, so a facility’s own state history is the most useful comparison. The state data report breaks the numbers out by state, and the survey-risk lookup shows an individual facility’s history.

A practical action plan

1. Look up your facility. Use the survey-risk lookup to see your electrical citation history and estimated next survey window.
2. Audit what residents can see. Walk every room for power strips, extension cords and resident-owned appliances (K920, K919).
3. Confirm receptacle records. Make sure every bed location has a current, dated test record (K914).
4. Inventory and test devices. Build a complete device inventory and have each device tested by a qualified biomedical technician, with results recorded (K921).
5. Run a self-check. The readiness assessment and the survey-readiness checklist take minutes and show where gaps are.
6. If you were cited, build the plan of correction with the plan of correction builder and gather evidence for the revisit.

Look Up Your Facility’s K-Tag History Multi-Facility Program