Opening a Residential Assisted Living

[widmaerjm]

Hi!

I am an RN and my mother a CNA. She approached me with idea of opening an ALF out of her home (3b/2bath).

We live in Florida and from the area we live average went is around 2k-5k a room.

She would care for the patient and I would be the administrator essentially.

we would hire 1 CNA to care for the patient at night.

Our goal would be to get licensed after obtaining 3 patients and then get a larger home and repeat.

This seems like a no-brainer for nurses however i fear that this would business would take an immense amount of hours to manage and keep vacancy down.

I do not have any reference for this business venture and hoping to hear some feedback on this journey

Thank you

[elkpark]

Have you talked to your state healthcare licensing agency yet about what requirements you would have to meet in order to open and operate a facility? That would be a good place to start. They can provide you with a copy of the state rules and regs for assisted living facilities.

[TEXASWAG, MSN, RN]

My best friend and I bought a home and set it up as a personal care home here in TX. We still have the home, but we're renting it out to a married couple. When our last client passed away, my best friend decided to go back to nursing school. Here are just a few things we learned along the way:

1. Contact whatever regulatory agency you have in your state and know the rules. We could only have 3 people as residents because we were considered a "personal care home", and we did not have a sprinkler system in the home .

2. We priced sprinkler systems after we had bought the home. We were getting quotes up to $30,000 to have a sprinkler system installed from the "installers".

3. We had a website.

4. We set up the company as an LLC.

5. If one of our caregivers called in, we had to cover. One time I was in the home with the client for 48 hours. Cooking, cleaning, dressing, turning him every 2 hours during the day and night.

6. Be prepared for when your client goes from walking to wheelchair to being bed bound.

Anyway, I say go for it but do your research first and always check out the competition in your city.

[Kamilah Coney, ASN, BSN, RN]

Wow! I JUST made a post asking for advice about doing this very thing. Did you and your mother decide to go ahead with this business venture? If so, how is it going so far?