WAC 246-310-380   Nursing home bed need standards.  (1) The department shall use the following rules in conjunction with the certificate of need review criteria contained in WAC 246-310-210(1) for applications proposing the following:

     (a) Construction, development, or other establishment of a new nursing home;

     (b) Increase in the licensed bed capacity of a nursing home or a hospital long-term care unit;

     (c) Change in license category of beds from the following to nursing home or hospital long-term care unit beds:

     (i) Acute care, or

     (ii) Boarding home care;

     (2) The department shall comply with the following time schedule for developing bed need projections:

     (a) By the last working day in January of each year, the department shall recalculate the estimated bed projection for each planning-area.

     (b) By the last working day in January of each year, the department shall provide the aging and adult services administration of the department of social and health services with the estimated bed need for each planning-area, pending the department's decisions on applications submitted during the previous year's nursing home concurrent review cycles.

     (c) By the last working day in January of each year, the department shall rank order planning-areas from lowest to highest by the projected current supply ratio.

     (d) By the first working day of June of each year, the department shall calculate the net estimated bed need for each planning-area.

     (3) The estimated bed projections for the projection period, listed by planning area will be updated annually and distributed to interested parties. When a planning-area's estimated bed projection is less than the planning-area's bed supply as defined by WAC 246-310-350(4), no beds can be added until the statewide established ratio is reached, except as allowed in this section.

     (4) The department shall limit to three hundred the total number of nursing home beds approved for all CCRCs which propose or are operating within a transition period.

     (a) These three hundred beds available for CCRCs during transition periods shall be in addition to the net nursing home beds needed in all of the planning-areas.

     (b) All nursing home beds approved for CCRCs which propose or are operating within a transition period shall be counted as beds within this three hundred bed limitation unless and until the CCRC fully complies with all provisions of the CCRCs performance standards.

     (5) The department shall not issue certificates of need approving more than the net estimated bed need indicated for a given planning-area, unless:

     (a) The department finds such additional beds are needed to be located reasonably close to the people they serve; and

     (b) The department explains such approval in writing.



[Statutory Authority: Chapter 70.38 RCW. 96-24-052, § 246-310-380, filed 11/27/96, effective 12/28/96. Statutory Authority: RCW 70.38.135. 91-15-018 (Order 179), § 246-310-380, filed 7/10/91, effective 8/10/91. Statutory Authority: RCW 43.70.040. 91-02-049 (Order 121), recodified as § 246-310-380, filed 12/27/90, effective 1/31/91. Statutory Authority: RCW 70.38.919. 90-12-072 (Order 063), § 248-19-810, filed 6/1/90, effective 7/1/90.]