(1) The nursing home must immediately notify the department's aging and disability services administration of:
(a) Any allegations of resident abandonment, abuse, or neglect, including substantial injuries of an unknown source, financial exploitation and misappropriation of a resident's property;
(b) Any unusual event, having an actual or potential negative impact on residents, requiring the actual or potential implementation of the nursing home's disaster plan. These unusual events include but are not limited to those listed under WAC
388-97-1740 (1)(a) through (k), and could include the evacuation of all or part of the residents to another area of the nursing home or to another address; and
(c) Circumstances which threaten the nursing home's ability to ensure continuation of services to residents.
(2) Mandated reporters must notify the department and law enforcement as directed in WAC
388-97-0640, and according to department established nursing home guidelines.
(3) The nursing home must notify the department's aging and disability services administration of:
(a) Physical plant changes, including but not limited to:
(i) New construction;
(ii) Proposed resident area or room use change;
(iii) Resident room number changes; and
(iv) Proposed bed banking.
(b) Mechanical failure of equipment important to the everyday functioning of the nursing home, which cannot be repaired within a reasonable time frame, such as an elevator; and
(c) An actual or proposed change of ownership (CHOW).
(4) The nursing home must notify, in writing, the department's aging and disability services administration and each resident, of a loss of, or change in, the nursing home's administrator or director of nursing services at the time the loss or change occurs.
(5) The nursing home licensee must notify the department's aging and disability services administration in writing of any change in the name of the licensee, or of the nursing home, at the time the change occurs.
(6) If a licensee operates in a building it does not own, the licensee must immediately notify the department of the occurrence of any event of default under the terms of the lease, or if it receives verbal or written notice that the lease agreement will be terminated, or that the lease agreement will not be renewed.
(7) The nursing home must report any case or suspected case of a reportable disease to the appropriate department of health officer and must also notify the appropriate department(s) of other health and safety issues, according to state and local laws.
(8) In the event of a nursing home's voluntary closure, the nursing home must:
(a) Notify all residents and resident representatives, the department's designated aging and disability services administration office, the state long-term ombuds, and, if the facility is medicare-certified, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services;
(b) Send the written notification at least sixty days before closure;
(c) Ensure that the relocation of residents and any required notice to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the public is done in accordance with WAC
388-97-4320.
(9) The nursing home licensee must provide written notice of its intention to voluntarily terminate its medicare or medicaid contract, to:
(a) The department's designated aging and disability services administration office;
(b) The Washington health care authority;
(c) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services;
(d) All residents and, when appropriate, resident representatives; and
(e) The public.
(10) The written notice required in subsection (9) must be provided, at least sixty days before contract termination, except notice to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the public must be provided in accordance with the requirements of 42 C.F.R. 489.52.
(11) If a nursing home voluntarily withdraws from participation in the medicaid program, but continues to provide nursing facility services, the nursing home will be subject to 42 U.S.C. 1396r (c)(2)(F), which prohibits the discharge of medicaid residents who are residing in the facility before the effective date of the withdrawal.