Tennessee Assisted Living

By David Besnette

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In this research guide you will learn how to get a COMPLETE, non-commercial, Statewide list of Assisted Living & Senior Living Facilities Provided by the State of Tennessee.

You will have access to facility lists for:

• Adult Care Homes
• Assisted Care Living Facilities
• Homes for the Aged
• Hospice
• Nursing Homes
• & much more

**At the time of this writing, there are 310 Assisted Living Facilities in Tennessee, with 20,764  total beds.

You will also learn if the facility has had Disciplinary Actions by the state, and also how to get a .PDF of Rules & Regulations for Assisted Living in Tennessee.

Find Assisted Living in Tennessee – Statewide

As you’ve probably become aware of, doing an online search for Assisted Living in Tennessee can end up with questionable results.   Most sites are heavily ad-laden, or have commercial or financial interests.    This often leaves you with websites that offer incomplete information, or data that you have to pay for.   

Fortunately, the State of Tennessee provides an easy, thorough and accurate way to find Senior Living facilities in Tennessee – no matter where you live. 

The search tool you will have access to looks like this:

Tennessee’s Safest Facilities:

To search for facilities, you’ll visit the Facility Listings page on the Tennessee Department of Health site.  From there, the steps are easy.

1. Select the type of care home you are interested in
2. Select a county
3. Choose between Current Licensed Facilities, Licensure Status, and New Facilities
4. Click “Current Search”

From there, you will get a full list of facilities based on your choices.  The list will look like this:

Notably, some very important data is included in the list.   

• Last Updated Date.  This is important when assessing the accuracy of the data.  For this report, it was updated on day of this writing
• Number of total beds in that particular county for the type of care selected.  For this example, there are 202 Assisted Care Living beds
• Facility Name, Address, and DIRECT Telephone number.  This is a hugely important piece of information, as the direct phone number is often what is omitted from most commercial sites
• Administrator’s name
• Facility Owner Information
• License Number
• Number of beds for each facility
• Date of last survey
• Date of original licensure (this is always worth noting to see how long a facility has been in operation)
• Date of license expiration
• Whether there have been any Disciplinary Actions

What’s not included (unfortunately) are inspections or complaints reports.  However, you will see whether any Disciplinary Actions have been issued to the facility.  This is a good “invitation” for you to ask the facility what the issue was, and how it was resolved.

Rules & Regulations for Assisted Living in Tennessee

The State of Tennessee’s Department of Health also offers a .PDF document containing the Rules and Regulations set forth by the State of Tennessee for Assisted Care Living Homes (ACLH).

Important note:  Assisted Living varies from state-to-state, and rules, regulations and standards are often quite different between states.  How each state names assisted living care can be quite different – obviously since Tennessee uses the term “Assisted Care Living Homes.”

Access the Rules and Regulations .PDF for Tennessee here, or you can download it.

Access To Health Care Facility Inspections Reports in Tennessee

Many states offer a robust, and user-friendly way for the public to access Inspections and Complaints reports for Health Care Facilities, including Assisted Living.

Although Tennessee does offer a way for the public to access these reports, it is far from user-friendly.   You need to Go to the Facility Inspections page on the Tennessee Department of Health site.

As you’ll see, it’s only in list format, and quite difficult to find specific facilities.   Hopefully, the State will update this feature to become more user-friendly.

Other Helpful & Trustworthy Resources for Senior Living in Tennessee

THCA – The Tennessee Health Care Association has a decent Facility Finder that offers an interactive map of Senior Living & Health Care Facilities statewide.   You’ll also see the facility options listed alphabetically.

The tool looks like this:

The facility information it provides is basic, but still, it offers contact information, administrators names and a map of the location.

Tennessee Commission on Aging & Disability – This site provides a number of useful items, including a writeup on Assisted Living vs. Nursing Homes – a common question for seniors and families.

Tennessee Residents: