Rhode Island Assisted Living Regulations and Records

When choosing an assisted living community, it is important to understand Rhode Island state regulations for assisted living facilities and know how to look up assisted living license information. But public access to assisted living records varies greatly by state.

We developed a system to rate each state on how easy – or difficult – it is to find important assisted living records and reports, and compiled tips to help you in your search.

States with the most transparent records allow you to look up important information about each assisted living facility online, including inspections, complaints, survey results, violations, capacity, and whether the facility accepts Medicaid.

Access to Rhode Island assisted living records: High

Public access to assisted living records and reports for the state of Rhode Island is high. Key findings that informed this rating include:

• Rhode Island has increased in rating due to their updated website allowing for increased transparency. For example, capacity size and administrator names are now listed with licensing information.
• Rhode Island only requires mandatory inspections of assisted living communities every two years.

How to look up Rhode Island assisted living licenses and records

• Visit the Rhode Island Department of Health Online Verification and Complaint Submission Site for a searchable listing of providers.
• Contact the Rhode Island Department of Elderly Affairs directly to find out about the backgrounds of providers.
• If you need to make a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get records, consider browsing the state-by-state resources from the National Freedom of Information Coalition, which includes sample state-specific FOIA letters.

How we arrived at our Rhode Island rating

We developed a standard methodology for state data collection and evaluation, and based our rating primarily on the objective, state-specific accessibility criteria outlined in these questions:

1. Are licensed assisted living communities listed online in any form? Yes
2. If Yes to #1, is the information updated frequently? Yes
3. If Yes to #1, is the list of licensed communities searchable? Yes
4. Does the state post inspections, complaints, survey results, or violations online? Yes
5. If Yes to #4, is the information updated frequently? [within 90 days] Yes
6. If Yes to #2 and #4, is the enforcement information included in the same place as licensed communities? No
7. If Yes to #4 and No to #6, are violations / inspections searchable at all? No
8. Is information about special licensing for care shown? No or N/A
9. Capacity shown? Yes
10. Payment types shown, [e.g. Medicaid, private pay]? No
11. Administrator / Contact name shown? Yes
12. State may fine facility? No
13. Frequency of inspections? Every 24 months
14. Website includes pricing of facility? No