Care-facility inspections
How nursing homes and care facilities in Delaware are inspected, licensed, and held to account.
9 laws · 19 enforcement actions · 8 guides · 4 court decisions
See the details
The laws 9
- Delaware Code Title 16, Chapter 11, "Long-Term Care Facilities and Services" - the core state facility-licensing chapter for nursing homes and similar facilities (including assisted living), organized into 10 subchapters: Licensing By The S… delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §1101, Purpose and overview (Subchapter I, Licensing By The State): declares that licensing/regulation of long-term care facilities exists to ensure quality of care and quality of life, establishes minimum acceptable levels of ca… delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §§1112-1113 (Subchapter I): the chapter's civil-penalty and other-remedies enforcement provisions. delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §§1114-1116 (Subchapter I): a facility's due-process right to a hearing on survey deficiencies and imposed remedies (§1114, consistent with the Administrative Procedures Act); delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §1131 (Subchapter III, Abuse, Neglect, Mistreatment, Financial Exploitation, or Medication Diversion of Patients or Residents): defines 'abuse' of a long-term care patient/resident, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emo… delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §1141 (Subchapter IV): requires a criminal background check (State Bureau of Identification/FBI, run through the Background Check Center) for any applicant seeking employment in, or a license to operate, a nursing home or similar… delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §1145 (Subchapter V, Criminal Background Checks; Drug Testing — Home-Care Agencies): the parallel criminal-background-check requirement for home health agencies, hospice agencies, personal assistance services agencies, and indivi… delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §§1150-1151 (Subchapter VI): establishes the Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsperson within DHSS under the federal Older Americans Act of 1987, and defines 'long-term care facility' (cross-referencing §1102) and 'record' for pu… delcode.delaware.gov
- 16 Del. C. §1161 (Subchapter VII, Minimum Staffing Levels for Residential Health Facilities - popularly 'Eagle's Law'): defines 'direct care,' 'nursing services direct caregivers' (CNAs, LPNs, RNs, advanced practice nurses, nursing supervis… delcode.delaware.gov
Know your rights 8
- DHCQ's own overview of its regulatory scope: licensing, monitoring, and unannounced surveys (at least every 12 months) of hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities; complaint investigation; dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's Frequently Asked Questions, covering the Adult Abuse Registry (what a listing means, how to check it before hiring a private caregiver) and how to file a complaint about a long-term care resident's treatment (24-hour hotline, confide… dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's compiled glossary of facility-type and regulatory terms used across its licensing programs (Assisted Living Facility, Nursing Home, Skilled Nursing Facility, Rest (Residential) Home, Family Care Home, Group Home types, plus CMS/CFR/M… dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's provider guidance implementing 16 Del. C. §1161 et seq. ('Eagle's Law'): the 3.28-hours-of-direct-care-per-resident-per-day minimum staffing ratio for Delaware nursing homes (suspended for FY2024-FY2025 during COVID recovery, back in… dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's Informal Dispute Resolution (IDR) instructions for nursing homes and assisted living facilities disputing citations in a federal Statement of Deficiencies (CMS-2567) or the STATE of Delaware's own Statement of Deficiencies issued und… dhss.delaware.gov
- DHSS/DHCQ consumer guidance on choosing long-term care in Delaware: signs an older adult may need help, how to start the conversation, how to weigh in-home care vs. assisted living vs. dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's Plan of Correction (PoC) submission guidance, explaining that a Statement of Deficiencies may be a federal report ('FORM CMS-2567') or a 'State Form' report, that both are public documents releasable on request, and detailing the thr… dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's compliance guidance on the criminal-background-check and mandatory-drug-testing requirements for long-term-care-facility and home-health-agency employment applicants (16 Del. C. Ch. dhss.delaware.gov
Enforcement actions 6
- DHCQ's own named-facility directory of every licensed Delaware nursing home (address, phone, website, bed count, license number, prior names) paired inline with each facility's most recent state survey reports (e.g. dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's archive of historical, per-facility nursing-home survey reports going back to 2020 (Annual Visit, Complaint, Follow-up, and COVID-era 'Other' surveys), each a separately downloadable state survey PDF keyed to the facility's license n… dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's parallel named-facility directory for every licensed Delaware assisted living facility (address, phone, website, bed count, license number, prior names) with each facility's most recent survey reports linked inline. dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's archive of historical assisted-living-facility survey reports, the ALF-sector counterpart to the nursing-home survey archive above. dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's Adult Abuse Registry - a live named-individual search tool listing every person in Delaware with a substantiated civil finding of abuse, neglect, mistreatment, and/or financial exploitation in a care setting; dhss.delaware.gov
- DHCQ's own enforcement-process forms: the 'State Civil Money Penalty Request Form' (the state, as opposed to CMS-federal, civil-money-penalty mechanism under 16 Del. C. dhss.delaware.gov
Orders & settlements 13
- DHCQ's own index of every 16 DE Admin. Code chapter it administers for long-term-care and acute/outpatient facilities, linking each regulation number directly to its text on regulations.delaware.gov: 3101 Adult Abuse Registry, 3102 LTC Tran… dhss.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3201, Skilled and Intermediate Care Nursing Facilities - Delaware's core state nursing-home licensing regulation, defining a 'Nursing facility (NF)' by cross-reference to 16 Del. C. and setting minimum standards of care. regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3225, Assisted Living Facilities - promulgated under 16 Del. C. Ch. 11, applying to any facility providing assisted living to elderly individuals or adults with disabilities, and reserving the term 'assisted living' for st… regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3230, Rest (Residential) Home Regulations - Delaware's minimum health standards for rest/residential homes providing beds and personal-care services in a homelike setting for residents normally able to manage activities of… regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3101, Adult Abuse Registry - the regulation implementing 16 Del. C. §1131's abuse/neglect/exploitation definitions and governing DHCQ's Adult Abuse Registry program, defining 'health care service provider,' 'contractor,' a… regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3102, Long Term Care Transfer, Discharge and Readmission Procedures - governs the impartial-hearing process a licensed facility must provide when it decides to transfer or discharge a resident. regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3105, Criminal History and Drug Testing for Nursing and Similar Facilities - implements 16 Del. C. §§1141-1142, requiring pre-employment criminal background checks and drug testing for facility applicants. regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3220, Training and Qualifications for Certified Nursing Assistants - sets CNA training-program, testing, and supervision standards for Nursing Facilities, Assisted Living Facilities, and Intermediate Care Facilities licens… regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3360, Regulations for Adult Day Care Facilities - applies to programs providing health, social, and related support services to four or more functionally impaired adults in the community. regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3350, Skilled Home Health Agencies (Licensure) - state licensure standards for skilled home health agencies, part of the state-only-licensed home-care sector this index covers. regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3351, Home Health Agencies—Aide Only (Licensure) - the parallel state licensure regulation for aide-only (non-skilled) home health agencies. regulations.delaware.gov
- 16 DE Admin. Code 3380, Delivery of Hospice Services - state licensure standards for hospice programs, including bereavement services and coordinated home/inpatient care. regulations.delaware.gov
- A formal Order of the Department of Health and Social Services (signed by then-Secretary Molly Magarik under 16 Del. C. Ch. dhss.delaware.gov
Court decisions 4
- Delaware Department of Health & Social Services v. Jain, 29 A.3d 207 (Del. 2011), C.A. No. 720, 2010, decided 2011-09-02. courtlistener.com
- Harmony at Kent v. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Health Care Quality, C.A. No. N25A-02-001 DJB, Delaware Superior Court, decided 2025-10-13. courtlistener.com
- State of Delaware v. Premier Healthcare Inc. d/b/a Newark Manor Nursing Home, Bruce Boyer, David Boyer, and Susan Comegys, C.A. No. N17C-09-177 RRC, Delaware Superior Court, decided 2018-06-14 (denying defendants' motion to dismiss). courtlistener.com
- Cooper v. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Long Term Care Residents Protection, C.A. No. N18A-09-005 RRC, Delaware Superior Court, decided 2018-12-04. courtlistener.com