Office of Health Care Assurance Hawaii: Verifying Facility Licenses and Filing Complaints

The Office of Health Care Assurance (OHCA) is the state regulatory body that licenses and inspects every care facility in Hawaii — from adult residential care homes to large assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Before placing a parent with dementia in any facility, OHCA records tell you what the admissions coordinator won't: past violations, complaint investigations, and whether the facility is even legally operating.

What OHCA Licenses

OHCA operates under the Hawaii Department of Health and regulates:

• Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) — HAR Chapter 11-90
• Adult Residential Care Homes Type I (5 or fewer residents) — HAR Chapter 11-100.1
• Adult Residential Care Homes Type II (6+ residents) — HAR Chapter 11-101.1
• Expanded ARCHs (E-ARCHs) — designated under HAR Chapter 11-100.1/101.1 for nursing-facility-level residents
• Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) — HAR Chapter 11-94.1
• Intermediate Care Facilities — HAR Chapter 11-94.2
• Home Health Agencies — HAR Chapter 11-97

Community Care Foster Family Homes (CCFFHs) are certified by the Department of Human Services, not OHCA — a distinction that matters when checking credentials.

The Memory Care Licensing Gap

Hawaii does not issue a separate "memory care" license. This is the single most important regulatory fact for families evaluating dementia placements. A facility can market itself as "memory care" or "Alzheimer's specialty" without:

• Meeting any dementia-specific staffing ratio
• Completing any minimum hours of dementia care training
• Installing secured-unit exit systems
• Providing structured cognitive stimulation programming
• Disclosing elopement incident history under a dementia-specific reporting framework

What this means for your family: you cannot rely on the presence of a "memory care" label as evidence of specialized dementia competence. The license type (ALF, ARCH Type I, ARCH Type II, E-ARCH) only tells you the physical plant standards and resident capacity — not whether the staff can actually manage dementia behaviors.

How to Verify a Facility's License

Before any facility tour, confirm the license is current and check its history:

Step 1: Contact OHCA directly at 808-692-7420 or visit the Department of Health's OHCA webpage.

Step 2: Request the following for each facility you are considering:

• Current license status (active, suspended, probationary, or revoked)
• License type and maximum resident capacity
• Date of most recent inspection
• Inspection findings and any cited deficiencies
• Status of corrective action plans for cited deficiencies

Step 3: Ask for complaint investigation summaries — these are public records. A pattern of complaints about the same issue (staffing, medication errors, elopement incidents) is more informative than any single violation.

Understanding Inspection Reports

OHCA conducts regular unannounced surveys of licensed facilities. Findings are categorized by severity:

• Deficiency citations — specific violations of Hawaii Administrative Rules (e.g., expired food in kitchen, missing fire extinguisher, inadequate staffing documentation)
• Plans of correction — the facility's written response explaining how they will fix each deficiency and prevent recurrence
• Follow-up surveys — OHCA returns to verify corrections were implemented

Red flags in inspection reports:

• Repeated citations for the same deficiency across multiple surveys (pattern of non-compliance)
• Staffing-related deficiencies (indicates chronic understaffing)
• Emergency preparedness failures
• Medication management errors
• Resident rights violations

Filing a Complaint Against a Facility

If your parent is experiencing neglect, abuse, or dangerous conditions in a licensed facility:

OHCA complaint line: 808-692-7420

What OHCA investigates:

• Violations of licensing standards (physical plant, staffing, care protocols)
• Unsafe conditions that endanger resident health
• Failure to meet minimum care standards

What OHCA does NOT investigate:

• Billing disputes
• Contract disagreements
• Staff personality conflicts
• General dissatisfaction with food quality or activities

For abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation specifically, also file with:

• Adult Protective Services: 808-832-5115 (Oahu) or 808-243-5151 (neighbor islands)
• Long-Term Care Ombudsman: 808-586-7268 — investigates quality-of-life complaints and advocates for residents

ARCH-Specific Regulatory Differences

Type II ARCHs face significantly higher regulatory overhead, which explains their 30-50% cost premium over Type I facilities.

How to Use This Information

Combine OHCA records with facility tours and direct questioning:

1. Before touring: Pull license status and most recent inspection report
2. During the tour: Ask about any deficiencies you found — how were they corrected?
3. Ask directly: How many complaints has OHCA received in the past 24 months, and what were they about?
4. Follow up: Contact the Long-Term Care Ombudsman for their independent assessment of the facility

The Hawaii Dementia & Memory Care Guide includes a complete facility vetting checklist organized by license type, plus the specific regulatory standards each Hawaii care setting must meet — so you can evaluate facilities using the same framework OHCA inspectors use.

See more Hawaii guides →