QAPI Coordinator Job Description: Duties, Salary Range, and a Ready-to-Post Template
CMS requires every nursing home to run a QAPI program — it doesn't require a job title to lead it. Here's what the role actually involves when a facility creates it anyway, what it typically pays, and a job description you can adapt and post.
Quick answer
A QAPI Coordinator is not a federally required position — 42 CFR 483.75 requires a functioning QAA committee and QAPI program, not a specific job title to run it. Where facilities create the role, it typically reports to the Administrator, facilitates the QAA/QAPI committee, designs and tracks Performance Improvement Projects, and analyzes incident and Quality Measure data. No federal credential is required; many facilities prefer an RN or LPN, though some staff it with a non-clinical quality/data professional instead. Reported 2026 salary data ranges roughly $40,000–$95,000/year depending on licensure, region, and source.
Is a QAPI Coordinator Federally Required?
No. Under 42 CFR 483.75, every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home must maintain a comprehensive QAPI program and a functioning Quality Assessment and Assurance (QAA) committee with specific required membership: the Director of Nursing Services, the Medical Director or a designee, the Infection Preventionist, and at least three additional staff members, with at least one in a leadership role. Nowhere in that requirement does CMS name a dedicated coordinator position — the regulation mandates the function and the committee, not a job title. See our full guide to QAPI requirements and the five required elements and our breakdown of which leadership roles federal regulation names directly for how this fits the rest of the org chart.
What CMS's Own QAPI Toolkit Says About This Role
CMS publishes a technical-assistance document, "Examples of Performance Objectives for Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews," as part of its public QAPI resource library. It lists sample duties for several roles — owner/board, Administrator, Medical Director, department directors, and general staff — and one of those roles is titled "Director of Quality / Quality Leader / QAPI Coordinator," confirming this is a recognized, commonly used title in the industry even though CMS doesn't mandate it. The document is explicit that it's a starting point, not a compliance requirement: "Use of this tool is not mandated by CMS, nor does its completion ensure regulatory compliance," and it invites facilities to "add, revise, or remove items as appropriate."
Core Duties, Adapted From CMS's Own Example
- Facilitate the facility's QAA/QAPI committee meetings, keeping the agenda tied to live data rather than an annual ritual before survey
- Pull and analyze incident reports, Quality Measure trends, grievances, and survey findings to identify improvement opportunities before they turn into citations
- Design, charter, and track Performance Improvement Projects (PIPs), including defining each project's goal and how success will be measured
- Coach department leaders and frontline staff on root-cause analysis so problem-solving targets the process, not just the individual involved in an incident
- Identify staff training needs that surface from QAPI data and coordinate with department directors to close the gaps
- Work with the Administrator to secure the staff time and training budget a PIP needs to actually run, not just exist on paper
- Report regularly to the Administrator and the quality committee on QAPI progress, including facilitating an at-least-annual evaluation of the program itself
- Assemble QAPI documentation — the written plan, PIP records, committee minutes — for presentation at the annual recertification survey or whenever a surveyor requests it
Typical Qualifications
No federal credential requirement
Because the position itself isn't named in 42 CFR Part 483, there's no federally mandated license, degree, or certification attached to it — unlike the Director of Nursing (RN license) or Administrator (state license) roles.
What facilities commonly look for anyway
In practice, many facilities prefer an RN or experienced LPN with a quality-assurance, infection-control, or risk-management background, since the role touches clinical incident data directly. Others — particularly larger or multi-site operators — fill it with a non-nursing "Director of Quality" who brings data-analysis and project-management experience instead.
The skill CMS's own materials emphasize
CMS's own QAPI job-description tool describes this role as needing to be "knowledgeable in data collection, data analysis methodology, and performance improvement methods" — a skills description, not a licensure requirement.
Where It Sits on the Org Chart
In CMS's own example, the role "reports to and receives direction from the Nursing Home Administrator on overall QAPI objectives," and works closely with the three clinical leaders the QAA committee specifically requires: the Director of Nursing, the Medical Director (or designee), and the Infection Preventionist. The Coordinator isn't itself one of the four required minimum committee member categories, but can fill one of the "at least three additional staff" seats, and in practice frequently acts as the committee's working facilitator regardless of whether their seat counts toward that minimum.
Salary Ranges
There is no single authoritative national salary figure for this exact nursing-home job title — it isn't tracked as its own category by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and job-board data varies by whether postings require an RN license. Here's what several sources reported in 2026:
| Source | Scope | Reported range |
|---|---|---|
| ZipRecruiter | QAPI Coordinator, California, 2026 | $40,000 – $68,600/yr (avg. $57,111) |
| Glassdoor | Quality Assurance Coordinator, national, general industry | $60,340 – $91,131/yr (avg. $73,662) |
| PayScale | Quality Assurance (QA) Coordinator — RN, national | $63,000 – $95,000/yr (avg. $86,853) |
| Indeed | Quality Assurance Coordinator, national | ~$25.94/hr (avg.) |
Treat these as directional, not a quote — benchmark against local postings and adjust for whether the role will require an RN/LPN license, since that credential requirement is consistently the biggest driver of where a specific posting lands in this range.
When to Create This Seat — and When Not To
Larger, better-resourced facilities often create a dedicated QAPI Coordinator because someone has to own the data pulls, PIP tracking, and committee scheduling whether or not the org chart names them. Smaller facilities and multi-facility operators spread thin across several buildings frequently don't — the DON or Administrator absorbs it on top of an already full plate. That can work, but only if the person absorbing it genuinely has the bandwidth to run active improvement projects, not just assemble a binder before survey week.
Job Description & Posting Template
A dedicated seat, or software that covers the gap
Whether or not a facility has a dedicated QAPI Coordinator, PoC360's QAPI Module runs structured PIP and PDSA cycles directly inside the platform, and Compliance Intelligence surfaces repeat F-tag risk from the facility's own citation history — so the data work this role exists to do keeps happening even when the seat itself is empty.
Start Free Trial →Common Mistakes
- Assuming CMS requires a dedicated QAPI Coordinator — it requires a functioning QAA committee and a working QAPI program, not a specific job title to run it
- Hiring for the title without defining who actually owns data collection, PIP tracking, and committee facilitation day to day — the title alone doesn't do the work
- Treating the role as a standalone position with no connection to the DON, Medical Director, or Infection Preventionist, when CMS's QAA committee requirements already name those three as required members the Coordinator has to work closely with
- Assuming a single "typical salary" figure applies nationally — pay varies substantially by whether the role requires an RN license, by region, and by facility size
- Creating the position but not giving it the authority or protected time to pull staff into PIP work, leaving QAPI activity dependent on one person's unpaid extra effort
Tools That Help
Run the PIP cycle this role owns
See how PoC360's QAPI Module structures a full Performance Improvement Project cycle — root cause analysis, interventions, and monitoring — so whoever owns QAPI at your facility has the evidence ready before a surveyor asks for it.
Summary Checklist
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a QAPI Coordinator a federally required nursing home position?+
No. 42 CFR 483.75 requires every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home to maintain a functioning Quality Assessment and Assurance (QAA) committee with specific required membership — the Director of Nursing, the Medical Director or a designee, the Infection Preventionist, and at least three additional staff including one in a leadership role — and to run a comprehensive QAPI program. It does not require a dedicated staff member with the job title "QAPI Coordinator." See our full guide to nursing home team structure for how this seat fits alongside the roles regulation does name directly.
Does CMS publish an official QAPI Coordinator job description?+
CMS publishes a QAPI technical-assistance tool called "Examples of Performance Objectives for Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews," which lists sample duties for several roles including one titled "Director of Quality / Quality Leader / QAPI Coordinator." It's explicitly a customizable example, not a mandated template — the document itself states that using it "is not mandated by CMS, nor does its completion ensure regulatory compliance."
Does a QAPI Coordinator need to be a Registered Nurse?+
No federal regulation requires it, since the position itself isn't federally defined. Many facilities prefer an RN or experienced LPN given the clinical nature of the data involved, but others — especially larger operators — staff the role with a non-nursing quality or data-analysis professional instead. It's a facility hiring decision either way.
What does a QAPI Coordinator typically get paid?+
Figures vary meaningfully by source, region, and whether the role requires an RN license. Recent 2026 data points range from roughly $40,000–$69,000/year (ZipRecruiter, California-specific QAPI Coordinator postings) up to $63,000–$95,000/year for RN-credentialed Quality Assurance Coordinator roles nationally (PayScale). There is no single authoritative national average for this specific job title, so benchmark against more than one source and adjust for your own state and licensure requirement.
Who does the QAPI Coordinator report to?+
In CMS's own example job description, the role reports to and receives direction from the Nursing Home Administrator on overall QAPI objectives, while working closely with the Director of Nursing, Medical Director, and Infection Preventionist — the three clinical leadership roles the QAA committee specifically requires.
Is the QAPI Coordinator automatically one of the required QAA committee members?+
Not automatically. The regulation's four required-member categories are the DON, the Medical Director or designee, the Infection Preventionist, and at least three additional staff with one in a leadership role. A QAPI Coordinator can fill one of those additional seats, but the role isn't itself one of the named required positions — facilities commonly include the Coordinator anyway as the committee's working facilitator.
Should every nursing home have a dedicated QAPI Coordinator?+
Not necessarily. Larger, better-resourced facilities often create the seat because someone has to own the day-to-day data and project work regardless of what the org chart calls them. Smaller facilities and multi-facility operators spread thin across buildings frequently have the DON or Administrator absorb it instead — which works, but only if that person actually has the bandwidth to run active Performance Improvement Projects, not just maintain a binder for survey week.
Sources: 42 CFR §483.75, CMS "Examples of Performance Objectives for Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews" (QAPI resource library, cms.gov), salary data from ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, PayScale, and Indeed (2026). Last reviewed 2026-09-30. We review this article as CMS guidance and market salary data change. This article is general information, not legal or compensation advice.