Continuum of Care Campuses in Tulsa: Assisted Living and Nursing on One Site

What a continuum of care facility is

Oklahoma's Continuum of Care and Assisted Living Act covers two kinds of facility: stand-alone assisted living centers, and continuum of care facilities, which provide assisted living together with nursing home care on one campus. OSDH gives the assisted living side its own license ID, often the nursing home's ID with AL added, so each side has its own public file of survey documents.

For families, the appeal is simple. A parent can move into assisted living and, if nursing needs grow, move across the campus instead of across town. Couples with different needs can live a short walk apart.

The campuses in the Tulsa area

Each row pairs a campus's assisted living license with the nursing home license at the same address, with the nursing side's certification on the OSDH roster and its CMS overall rating.

Several are nonprofit or faith-based campuses that also offer independent living, which needs no care license and does not appear on OSDH's roster.

The certification question

Look closely at the certification column. A nursing unit certified for Medicare and Medicaid can keep a long-stay resident whose care is later paid by SoonerCare. A Medicare-only (SNF) unit cannot bill SoonerCare, and a distinct-part certification has its own rules. Campuses that serve mostly private-pay residents sometimes choose Medicare-only certification. That is not a problem for a resident who will pay privately throughout, but it can force a move off campus for one who spends down, which defeats the purpose of choosing a continuum.

Entrance fees and contracts

Some campuses with independent living charge entrance fees, with contracts that promise different levels of future care at different prices. Those contracts are complex. Ask for the full contract, the refund terms, the fee history and the most recent financial statements, and consider having an attorney review it. For assisted living specifically, Oklahoma requires the admission and discharge criteria to be in the service contract; read them with the nursing-side certification in mind.

Who a campus suits best

Continuum of care campuses suit couples with different needs, people who want to make one move rather than several, and residents who can pay privately for most or all of their stay. They suit less well a family that expects SoonerCare to pay early, unless the nursing side participates and the campus will keep residents who spend down. Ask for that policy in writing.

Most Tulsa campuses are in south and midtown Tulsa, with others in Broken Arrow, Owasso and Bristow. Visit both sides of a campus on the same day, eat in both dining rooms if you can, and ask residents who have moved from one side to the other how the transition went.

What to ask about the assisted living side

Treat the assisted living side as its own building. Ask for its newest OSDH survey documents, how many direct care staff are awake overnight, who gives medications, and whether it has filed an Alzheimer's/dementia special care disclosure if memory care may be needed. Ask whether assisted living residents can use the campus's therapy department and whether the nursing staff respond to emergencies on the assisted living side. On some campuses the answer is yes, which can be a real safety advantage; on others the two licenses operate separately. Finally, ask what share of nursing beds are reserved for current campus residents, and what happened the last time a resident needed one and none was free.

Write down the answers and compare campuses side by side. The details of transfer policy, bed guarantees and certification matter more over a ten-year horizon than the look of the lobby or the dining menu on the day of the tour.

How to evaluate a campus

Read both public files: the assisted living survey documents and the nursing home's CMS record. A strong nursing side does not guarantee a strong assisted living side, or the reverse. Ask how transfers between levels are decided, who decides, and whether a resident is guaranteed a nursing bed on campus when needed or only given priority.