Assisted Living Residences Off-Site Survey

 

To: All licensed Assisted Living Residences licensed in the state of Colorado. From: HFEMSD The number of Assisted living facilities in the state of Colorado has grown significantly over the last 10 years. As required by statute, CRS 25-27 104 (2)(b), the department must survey all licensed assisted living facilities annually. To meet these requirements and continue to perform oversight to all assisted living residences, the Division will re-implement a schedule of onsite and off-site investigation processes for all assisted living residences. Prior to the pandemic, the Division worked with providers to implement a standard system whereby all assisted living residences were inspected once each year. This process included a full inspection of each facility’s quality assurance program once each year for two years, with a full onsite inspection once every three years. At this time, the Division is reinstituting this process for all assisted living facilities in order to meet statutory requirements. Assisted Living Facilities will generally be surveyed annually, with the type of survey determined on a 3-year cycle. The survey cycle will include: ● One on-site inspection per 3-year cycle. ● Two off-site inspections per 3-year cycle. This survey cycle will ensure the Department is able to evaluate the care and operations of all assisted living residences on an annual basis. The Division will continue to investigate complaints as they are received. In some instances, based on the egregiousness of the findings of one or more complaints during an investigation, the Division may convert the complaint investigation into a full survey inspection regardless of the placement of the facility in the standard survey cycle. The Department may also convert an off-site inspection into an on-site inspection if the facility does not provide the requested information or fails to meet the criteria for successful demonstration of compliance. In general, the new off-site inspections will focus on care and services provided to the residents. Facilities that are contacted by a Division inspector for an off-site inspection will receive full instructions on the new off-site process at the time they are contacted.The standard survey cycle described above is effective as of the date of this notice. The Division values your cooperation and feedback on the reimplementation of this process and encourages your feedback to ensure the process is working as intended. A feedback mechanism will be provided for facilities to submit input as part of each off-site inspection. If you have questions or concerns regarding this new process, please reach out to Dr. Steve Cox, Branch Chief Home and Community Facilities, at steve.cox@state.co.us, or Marcie Schweitzer, ALR Section manager at marcie.schweitzer@state.co.us