FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 2056

C 10 L 12

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description: Concerning assisted living facilities.

Sponsors: House Committee on Health Care & Wellness (originally sponsored by Representatives Van De Wege, Bailey, Cody, Johnson and Warnick).

House Committee on Health Care & Wellness

House Committee on Health & Human Services Appropriations & Oversight

Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care

Background:

Washington began licensing boarding homes in 1958. The Department of Social and Health Services licenses and conducts inspections, investigations of complaints, and enforcement actions related to boarding homes.

Boarding homes are facilities that provide housing and basic services to seven or more residents. Residents of boarding homes are people who live in a boarding home for reasons of age or disability and receive services provided by the boarding home. Services provided to residents by boarding homes include housekeeping, meals, snacks, laundry, and activities. They may also provide domiciliary care, including assistance with activities of daily living, health support services, and intermittent nursing services. Intermittent nursing services include: medication administration, administration of health care treatments, diabetic management, nonroutine ostomy care, tube feeding, and delegated nursing tasks.

Nonresident individuals may also live in a boarding home and receive specified services, but they may not receive domiciliary care from the boarding home. Some of the services that nonresident individuals may receive upon request include:

• emergency assistance;

• facility systems to respond to the potential need for emergency assistance;

• nursing assessment services;

• preadmission assessment for transitioning to a licensed care setting;

• medication assistance and prefilling insulin syringes;

• nutrition management;

• dental services; and

• customary landlord services.

Summary:

The term "boarding home" is changed to "assisted living facility" throughout the boarding home licensing statute and elsewhere in the Revised Code of Washington. The Department of Social and Health Services is authorized to apply rules regarding boarding homes to assisted living facilities.

Votes on Final Passage: