Ohio · nursing homes
Ohio nursing home staff requirements: what you have to hold on every person
An Ohio nursing home has to hold twenty-nine dated things on file for the people it employs. Twenty-eight of them are federal and are the same in every state. One is Ohio's own. That is the smallest state layer of any state on this site, and it means an Ohio building's real job is getting the federal list right rather than hunting for local extras.
What Ohio adds
One thing, on top of everything every nursing home in the country already holds. It names the section of Ohio 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 criminal records check through BCI, and through the FBI as well if they have not lived in Ohio for five yearsThe five-year residency question is the part that gets forgotten, because it is asked once, in an interview, and the answer changes who you send the request to. | Before they start. Ohio sets no repeat. | Ohio Rev. Code 3721.121 |
A state that adds almost nothing, and why that is not the easy answer
Ohio has the shortest state layer of any state on this site. One check, run once, with no repeat.
That sounds like less work and it mostly is. But it moves the risk somewhere less obvious. In California or Texas, the state gives you a date to hold, and a date can be tracked. In Ohio, two of the three things worth watching have no date attached to them at all.
The first is TB. Ohio hands the schedule to your own infection control plan, so the honest answer to "how often do we do this?" is "read our plan", and buildings that have never written a specific answer into it discover that during a survey rather than before one.
The second is the registration itself. An Ohio nurse aide stays on the registry by working eight paid hours in twenty-four months, not by renewing anything. Somebody on maternity leave, or on light duties away from the floor, or covering the front desk for a year, can drift off the registry without a single expiry date passing. No reminder fires because there is nothing to remind you about.
What Ohio does not add
No state training hours. No state TB schedule. No repeat background check. The eleven federal teaching topics further down this page are the whole training list for an Ohio building.
What every nursing home in the country holds
These twenty-eight are the same in Ohio 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 Ohio, and not on the tables above, because we could not put a section number next to them without guessing. Guessing at a citation is worse than admitting the gap, because the guess is the thing somebody quotes back.
- How your building decides TB screening. Ohio does not write its own schedule and leaves it to your infection control plan, which follows the national 2019 guidance. That means the answer for your building is in your own plan, and somebody has to have written it.
- That each state tested nurse aide stays active on the ODH registry. Ohio keeps registration alive through 8 hours of paid work in a 24 month period rather than through a renewal date, which is a different kind of check from every other state on this site.
Where the Ohio rows came from
Read on .
Questions Ohio buildings ask
Does Ohio require an annual background check on nursing home staff?
No. Ohio Rev. Code 3721.121 sets the check before somebody starts and does not set a repeat. That makes Ohio quieter than Texas or Washington, both of which come back around every year or every two.
When does an Ohio nursing home need an FBI check as well as a BCI one?
When the person has not been an Ohio resident for the last five years. It is a question you ask once, at hiring, and the answer decides which request you send. Get it wrong and the check you hold is the wrong check, which is harder to spot later than a missing one.
Does Ohio require annual TB testing?
Ohio does not write its own schedule. Your infection control plan does, following the national 2019 guidance, which is a test when somebody starts and questions after that rather than a yearly repeat. The practical effect is that your own plan is the document a surveyor reads, so it needs to say something specific.
How does an STNA registration stay active in Ohio?
By working. Ohio keeps a state tested nurse aide active through at least 8 hours of paid nursing-related work in any 24 month period, rather than through a renewal date. That means a person on long leave can go inactive with no date having run out anywhere, which is the one Ohio trap worth knowing about.
Does Ohio add training hours for nurse aides?
No. The federal twelve hours a year is the whole requirement, counted from each person's own hire anniversary. Ohio adds no state topics on top of the eleven federal ones.
Where to go next
- How Credolex works in a nursing home
- The 24 credential and training F-tags, the guide behind the tag Ohio leans on
- What Pennsylvania asks for
- What Illinois asks for
- Every state we have read so far