US · guidance
CMS SOM App. U, Tag R219
(iv) Functional furniture appropriate to the patient's needs and individual closet
space with clothes racks and shelves accessible to the patient.
Interpretive Guidelines: §403.742(b)(2)(iv)
“Functional furniture appropriate to the patient’s needs” means that the furniture in each
patient’s room contributes to the patient attaining or maintaining his/her highest
practicable level of independence. In general, furnishings include places to put clothing
away in an organized manner that will let it remain clean, free of wrinkles, and accessible
to the patient while protecting it from casual access by others, and places to put personal
effects.
There may be instances in which individual patients determine that certain items are not
necessary (e.g., both the patient and spouse use wheelchairs. They visit more easily
without another chair in the room.) In this case, the patient’s wishes could determine the
furniture needs.
“Shelves accessible to the patient” means that the patient, if able, or a staff person at the
direction of the patient, can get to their clothes whenever they choose.
Survey Procedures:
• Is there functional furniture appropriate to the patients’ needs?
• Is there individual closet space with accessible clothes racks and shelves?
History
Rev. 239; Issued: 04-24-26; Effective: 04-24-26; Implementation: 04-24-26
Provenance
- Source
- cms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-07-22
- Edition
- som-2026-07-22
- Content hash
72f631e0fa0bca275b7fec1774cfacc369d39dc65b0097850edd351fd843e9aa
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.