Illinois · nursing homes
Illinois nursing home staff requirements: what you have to hold on every person
An Illinois nursing home has to hold thirty dated things on file for the people it employs. Twenty-eight of them are federal and are the same in every state. Two are Illinois's own, and the tighter of the two gives you ten working days from a person's first day rather than a date on a calendar.
What Illinois adds
Two things, on top of everything every nursing home in the country already holds. Each one names the section of Illinois law it comes from, so you can read it yourself rather than take our word for it.
| What we track | How often | Where the rule comes from |
|---|---|---|
| A fingerprint check through the State Police, posted to the Health Care Worker RegistryThe registry is where the result lives, so the registry is also where you check it. Ten working days is roughly two weeks of calendar, and it starts on day one. | Within ten working days of them starting | 77 Ill. Adm. Code 955.165 |
| Teaching on harassment at workEmployment law rather than a health rule, and it reaches every Illinois employer with any staff at all. | Every year | 775 ILCS 5/2-109 |
A deadline that starts before you know
Ten working days is the tightest deadline of any state on this site, and the awkward part is where it sits in the hiring process.
Somebody starts on a Monday. You have until roughly the Friday of the following week to have run the check and had the result posted. That period is also the period in which you find out whether the person is going to stay, whether their references land, and whether the shift they were hired for actually suits them.
So the check has to be started before you know any of that, and the buildings that get caught are the ones where the paperwork waits for the person to settle in. There is nothing clever to do about it other than treating day one and the fingerprint appointment as the same event.
What Illinois does not add
Illinois does not write its own TB schedule. It follows the national 2019 approach, which is a test when somebody starts and questions after, so your own infection control plan is the document that decides the detail.
Illinois does not add a general nurse aide hour count. Twelve a year, federal, plus the dementia hours above.
What every nursing home in the country holds
These twenty-eight are the same in Illinois as they are everywhere else, and they are most of the job. Each one names a CMS tag, a piece of the federal code, or both. The guides go through the ones that get cited most.
Licences and certificates
| What we track | How often | Where the rule comes from |
|---|---|---|
| A current RN license | When it runs out. Most last 2 years. | F839 · 42 CFR 483.70(e) |
| A current LPN license | When it runs out. Most last 2 years. | F839 · 42 CFR 483.70(e) |
| Nurse aide certification, still active on the state list | When it runs out. Most last a year. | F728 · 42 CFR 483.35(d) |
| A current license for therapy, social work and pharmacy staff | When it runs out. Most last 2 years. | F839 · 42 CFR 483.70(e) |
| A current administrator license | When it runs out. Most last a year. | F836 · 42 CFR 483.70(a) |
| Proof the food service director is qualified, where no dietitian works full time | When it runs out. Most last 3 years. | F801 · 42 CFR 483.60(a)(2) |
| Proof the activities lead is qualified | When it runs out. Most last 2 years. | F680 · 42 CFR 483.24(c)(2) |
Checks you run on a person
| What we track | How often | Where the rule comes from |
|---|---|---|
| A look at the state nurse aide list before the first shift | Before their first shift, then every 2 years | F729 · 42 CFR 483.35(d)(4) |
| A check for any finding of abuse or neglect against them | Every year | F606 · 42 CFR 483.12(a)(3) |
Health and safety
| What we track | How often | Where the rule comes from |
|---|---|---|
| A first TB check: history, symptoms and a test | Once, in their first two weeks | CDC 2019 via 42 CFR 483.80(a)(2) |
| The hepatitis B shot offered free, and their answer written down | Once, within ten working days of starting | 29 CFR 1910.1030(f) |
| A mask fit test for anyone who wears an N95 | When it runs out. Most last a year. | 29 CFR 1910.134(f) |
| A current CPR card at the healthcare level | When it runs out. Most last 2 years. | F678 · 42 CFR 483.24(a)(3) |
Teaching and in-service
| What we track | How often | Where the rule comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation, before they work on their own | Once, in their first week | F940 · 42 CFR 483.95 |
| Teaching on abuse, neglect and dementia care | Every year | F943 · 42 CFR 483.95(c) |
| Teaching on residents' rights | Every year | F942 · 42 CFR 483.95(b) |
| Teaching on stopping infection spreading | Every year | F945 · 42 CFR 483.95(e) |
| Teaching on the quality program | Every year | F944 · 42 CFR 483.95(d) |
| Teaching on the compliance and ethics program, if your company runs five or more buildings | Every year | F946 · 42 CFR 483.95(f) |
| Teaching on mental health and behavior needs | Every year | F949 · 42 CFR 483.95(i) |
| Teaching on talking with residents, for hands-on staff | Every year | F941 · 42 CFR 483.95(a) |
| Teaching on what to do in an emergency | Every year | 42 CFR 483.73(d)(1) |
| Teaching on blood and needle safety | Every year | 29 CFR 1910.1030(g) |
| Teaching on the chemicals they handle | When they start, and again when a new chemical arrives | 29 CFR 1910.1200(h) |
| Twelve hours of teaching for each nurse aide | 12 hours every year, counted from their own start date | F947 · 42 CFR 483.95(g) |
| A written look at how each nurse aide is doing | Every year | F730 · 42 CFR 483.35(d)(7) |
| Teaching on keeping resident information private | When they start, and again whenever your privacy policy changes | 45 CFR 164.530(b)(1) |
Employment paperwork
| What we track | How often | Where the rule comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Form I-9, filled in and kept | Once, in their first three days of work | 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(1)(ii) |
Three more that nearly every building does anyway
These three are not on the tables above, and the reason is narrow: they rest on federal guidance or on a reporting program rather than on a rule with a section number. Almost every nursing home does all three, several state Medicaid programs have made the first one a condition of payment, and a page that called them law would be a page a surveyor would stop trusting.
- A check against the federal list of people barred from Medicare and Medicaid work. Every month. A name that was clear in January can be on it in February, so this is one to run on employees and contractors alike.
- Teaching on the signs of TB. Every year. What the signs are, who is at risk, and what to do about it. Teaching, not a test.
- A flu shot, or their reason for saying no. Every year. Their answer either way, written down. The count of who said yes is what goes in the yearly report.
What you still have to check yourself
Real in Illinois, and not on the tables above, because we could not put a section number next to it without guessing. Guessing at a citation is worse than admitting the gap, because the guess is the thing somebody quotes back.
- Six hours of dementia teaching within 60 days for staff with direct access, and three hours a year after that. IDPH publishes the curriculum. We could not pin the hours to a section number, so they are not in the table above.
Where the Illinois rows came from
Read on .
Questions Illinois buildings ask
How long does an Illinois nursing home have to run the fingerprint check?
Ten working days from the person's first day, with the result posted to the Health Care Worker Registry. That is about two calendar weeks, and the clock starts the moment they walk in rather than when you get around to the paperwork.
What is the Health Care Worker Registry?
The Illinois list that holds a person's certification and the outcome of their background check in one place. It is where the fingerprint result is posted and it is where you check somebody's status, so a building that checks the registry is checking both things at once.
Is harassment training required every year in Illinois?
Yes, for every Illinois employer, with no minimum headcount, under 775 ILCS 5/2-109. Like New York and unlike California, the cycle is annual. It reaches everybody you employ rather than only clinical staff.
How much dementia training does Illinois require?
Six hours within 60 days for staff with direct access to residents, and three hours a year after that, against a curriculum IDPH publishes. We have kept it off the table on this page because we could not pin it to a section number, not because it is optional.
Does Illinois add nurse aide training hours?
Not beyond the dementia hours. The general aide count stays at the federal twelve a year, counted from each person's own hire anniversary.
Where to go next
- How Credolex works in a nursing home
- F726: nurse aide competency, the guide behind the tag Illinois leans on
- What Ohio asks for
- What Pennsylvania asks for
- Every state we have read so far