Every person desiring to operate a home and the superintendent or administrator of each county home or district home for which a license as a residential care facility is sought shall apply for a license to the director of health. The director shall issue a license for the home, if after investigation of the applicant and, if required by section 3721.02 of the Revised Code, inspection of the home, the following requirements or conditions are satisfied or complied with:

(A) The applicant has not been convicted of a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude;

(B) The applicant is not violating any of the rules adopted by the director of health or any order issued by the director ;

(C) The applicant has not had a license to operate the home revoked pursuant to section 3721.03 of the Revised Code because of any act or omission that jeopardized a resident's health, welfare, or safety nor has the applicant had a long-standing pattern of violations of this chapter or rules adopted under it that caused physical, emotional, mental, or psychosocial harm to one or more residents.

(D) The buildings in which the home is housed have been approved by the state fire marshal or a township, municipal, or other legally constituted fire department approved by the marshal. In the approval of a home such agencies shall apply standards prescribed by the board of building standards, and by the state fire marshal, and by section 3721.071 of the Revised Code.

(E) The applicant, if it is an individual, or the principal participants, if it is an association or a corporation, is or are suitable financially and morally to operate a home;

(F) The applicant is equipped to furnish humane, kind, and adequate treatment and care;

(G) The home does not maintain or contain:

(1) Facilities for the performance of major surgical procedures;

(2) Facilities for providing therapeutic radiation;

(3) An emergency ward;

(4) A clinical laboratory unless it is under the supervision of a clinical pathologist who is a licensed physician in this state;

(5) Facilities for radiological examinations unless such examinations are performed only by a person licensed to practice medicine, surgery, or dentistry in this state.

(H) The home does not accept or treat outpatients, except upon the written orders of a physician licensed in this state, maternity cases, boarding children, and does not house transient guests, other than participants in an adult day-care program, for twenty-four hours or less;

(I) The home is in compliance with sections 3721.28 and 3721.29 of the Revised Code.

When the director issues a license, the license shall remain in effect until revoked by the director or voided at the request of the applicant; provided, there shall be an annual renewal fee payable during the month of January of each calendar year. Any licensed home that does not pay its renewal fee in January shall pay, beginning the first day of February, a late fee of one hundred dollars for each week or part thereof that the renewal fee is not paid. If either the renewal fee or the late fee is not paid by the fifteenth day of February, the director may, in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, revoke the home's license.

If, under division (B)(5) of section 3721.03 of the Revised Code, the license of a person has been revoked or the license of a county home or district home to operate as a residential care facility has been revoked, the director of health shall not issue a license to the person or home at any time. A person whose license is revoked, and a county home or district home that has its license as a residential care facility revoked other than under division (B)(5) of section 3721.03 of the Revised Code, for any reason other than nonpayment of the license renewal fee or late fees shall not be issued a new license under this chapter until a period of one year following the date of revocation has elapsed.

Any applicant who is denied a license may appeal in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.127, HB 487, §101.01, eff. 9/10/2012.

Effective Date: 07-21-2000; 06-30-2005