How to tour a Colorado assisted living home
Last reviewed: August 27, 2026
This page is for adult children on Colorado’s Western Slope who are getting ready to walk through a home. It is educational only. It is not legal advice, placement advice, or a recommendation of any home.
This directory is a separate business from High Desert Assisted Living in Clifton, Colorado. Jason and Laura Cheney operate both; the directory is not an official state list and is not a CDPHE, HCPF, or Medicare rating tool. Nothing on this page is a recommendation of that home.
The short version
Before you go, look the building up on CDPHE Find and Compare Facilities. Read the last three years of surveys and occurrence reports. If Medicaid may matter now or later, ask in writing whether the home is HCPF-certified as an Alternative Care Facility (ACF). That is a Medicaid certification on top of the assisted living license, not a different CDPHE license. Do not use Medicare Care Compare to shop assisted living.
Visit more than once. Make one visit unannounced, or stay for a meal. Use your senses.
Ask to see the written resident agreement (what is included vs what costs extra), staffing and whether anyone is awake 24 hours, sprinklers, exit alerts and cameras, the latest inspection report on site, the 30-day discharge rules, and who gives medications. If they market memory care, ask for the secure-environment packet.
Take the packet home. Do not sign on tour day.
Before you go
1. Confirm the license. Search the exact licensed name on Find and Compare. The tool covers homes licensed by CDPHE, certified by HCPF, or certified by Medicare. It shows surveys and self-reported occurrences from about the last three years, plus the home’s plan of correction. Print the page so you can ask what changed after any citation.
CDPHE says Medicare comparison websites “only contain data on Medicare facilities.” Colorado assisted living is a state license, not a Medicare facility type. Care Compare is the wrong tool for this tour.
2. If Medicaid may be needed, ask about ACF in writing. Not every licensed home is an ACF. A private-pay-only home can be fully licensed and still unusable for Medicaid-funded services. Ask: “Are you currently HCPF-certified as an Alternative Care Facility, and which waivers do you accept?” Then confirm with the Case Management Agency (in Mesa County: Rocky Mountain Health Plans). Treat ACF as licensed assisted living plus HCPF certification. This page does not name a single controlling HCPF rule number.
3. Who to bring. If the person who would live there can tour, bring them. Bring a second person to take notes. Bring the Find and Compare printout and a short list of the documents below.
4. Plan more than one visit. The Alzheimer’s Association tells families to tour several communities, make an appointment the first time, then return unannounced, and to visit at different times of day, including a meal. CDPHE’s consumer checklist says the same: use all five senses, trust your first reaction, talk with residents, and do not decide in a hurry.
Ask to see these (Colorado Chapter 7)
These are documents a Colorado Assisted Living Residence must be able to talk about. This is not a nursing-home checklist.
Written resident agreement
- A copy you can take home. Both sides must sign and date it at move-in. The agreement cannot waive state or federal rules.
- Charges, refunds, and deposits
- Services included in the rate, and every optional service with the charge for each
- Any fee to hold a place while the person is in the hospital, and when it is charged
- Who provides linens, hygiene supplies, furnishings, and phones
- Reasons the home could discharge someone, including nonpayment
Written disclosures
- Minimum staffing levels, whether staff are awake 24 hours, and how much licensed or certified clinical staff is on site
- Automatic fire sprinklers — yes or no
- Exit-alert devices — when and where
- Cameras or location monitoring — when, where, and how they decide someone needs it
- Whether they operate a secure environment, and what that means
- The individualized care plan
- Smoking rules
- Where the most recent inspection report is kept on site
- A copy of current Chapter 7 rules, if you ask
Money and property
- The home should not take power of attorney or guardianship unless a court orders it, and should not require a loan, mortgage, or property in exchange for future care
- If they handle resident money: written notarized authorization, a separate interest-bearing account for amounts over $500, a surety bond, receipts, and quarterly reports
Discharge / 30-day notice
- The home must arrange discharge if the person has needs it cannot meet (including regular 24-hour medical or nursing care, or a need for a secure environment the home does not have)
- The home may also discharge for nonpayment or for not following a valid signed agreement
- Written notice 30 calendar days in advance, except when the person needs a level of care the home cannot meet or is a danger to self or others — then as much notice as is reasonable
- Notice goes to the resident, the legal representative, and any designated person. A copy goes to the state and local ombudsman
- The notice must explain how to grieve and appeal, and must include ombudsman and CDPHE contacts
- CDPHE posts an involuntary discharge notification / appeal form
Who gives medications
- Only a practitioner, nurse, qualified medication administration person (QMAP), or CNA-Med
- A QMAP or CNA-Med may help only if the resident can consent and participate
- The resident has the right to refuse medication
- If needs become regular 24-hour medical or nursing care, that is a discharge issue, not something the home is licensed to become
Questions for any home
License and money
- What exact licensed name should I search on Find and Compare?
- May I see the latest inspection report here, and a copy of Chapter 7?
- What citations or occurrences in the last three years should I know about, and what changed?
- Are you currently HCPF-certified as an ACF, and which waivers do you accept? (Get it in writing.)
- May I take home the resident agreement and the included-vs-optional price list?
- What are the deposit, refund, and hospital-hold rules?
Staffing and who is in charge
- What are your minimum staffing levels? Are staff awake 24 hours? When is a nurse or other licensed person on site?
- Who is the administrator? When they are off, who is the qualified designee, and may I have that name and number? (It should always be available to residents and the public.)
- Who is here overnight, and is there a night safety check?
- Who gives medications — QMAP, CNA-Med, or nurse?
- What happens if this person later needs regular 24-hour nursing?
- Have direct-care staff completed required dementia training (not only in a “memory care” unit)?
Colorado does not publish a statewide private-pay staff-to-resident ratio. The legal hook is this home’s written staffing disclosure, plus a rule that at least one qualified staff member must be present whenever residents are present, and that staff must be sufficient for the people who live there. Volunteers do not count.
Daily life
- May I see a sample care plan, and is the family involved when it is written?
- What help with dressing, bathing, toileting, transfers, and getting to activities is included?
- May I see this week’s menu and stay for a meal? (Menus should be posted at least a day ahead.)
- Three meals a day, snacks, and drinks people can get themselves?
- What is happening on the activity calendar this hour? Evenings and weekends?
- How do you tell families about a fall, a hospital trip, or a change in condition?
- May I see the house rules and the grievance process?
- For what reasons would you discharge this person, and what notice would we get?
Space and safety
- Private or shared bedroom? Private or shared bathroom?
- How do residents call for help?
- Sprinklers, exit alerts, cameras, secure environment — as listed above
If they market memory care
Memory care is not a separate Colorado license and not a Medicare license. An assisted living home may choose to run a secure environment — the whole building or one part. A setting is secure when a resident cannot freely go outside during some or all hours.
Ask for this in writing, before anyone moves in:
- Is this a secure environment? Whole building or one unit? How is exit limited?
- Admission criteria, and the licensed-practitioner evaluation from the last 90 days that talks about wandering or safety awareness
- Will anyone be required to move in against their will without legal authority?
- Re-assessment of the need to stay there every six months
- Extra staff training before someone works alone in the unit
- At least one trained, awake staff member on duty in the secure environment at all times
- A secure outdoor area people can actually use
- How you would move someone out of the secure environment later
If the home is also an ACF with a secured unit, ask the Case Management Agency about extra HCPF staffing rules. Do not look for a CMS “memory care” certificate.
Extra questions for a small house
“Small house” is not a Colorado license type. One license covers three or more unrelated adults, whether the building is a house or a larger campus. Do not assume a small home is cheaper or better. Ask practical questions, then match the answers to the same written staffing disclosure and minimum services any licensed home must meet.
Who cooks, and when?
- Who plans the menu, and who actually cooks on weekdays, evenings, weekends, and holidays?
- Staff, a contracted cook, or the owner?
- May I see this week’s menu and the kitchen?
- Who prepares a therapeutic diet if a doctor orders one?
Who is in charge evenings and weekends?
- Does the owner live here or work here? If not, how often are they on site? (Colorado does not require the owner to live on site.)
- Who is the administrator, and who is the qualified designee tonight and on Saturday?
- May I have the posted name and number for whoever is on duty?
Shared baths
- Private or shared? How many people share it?
- State rules require at least one full bathroom for every six residents
- Grab bars, a non-slip shower, and real privacy for bathing?
Backup if someone calls out
- What happens at 6 a.m. or on a Sunday if the scheduled caregiver calls in sick?
- Who is the second person on the list, and how long until they arrive?
- Compare the written minimum-staffing disclosure with what you see on an unannounced evening visit
Do not expect a statewide staff-to-resident ratio. There isn’t one on the private-pay side. Use the home’s own written disclosure and what you see with your own eyes.
What to notice while you walk
CDPHE’s consumer checklist still tells families to:
- Tour the entire residence, including the kitchen and pantry
- Observe a meal
- Notice whether the atmosphere is pleasant
- Notice whether there seems to be enough staff
- Notice whether residents look happy, engaged, clean, and groomed
- Watch staff and residents together
- Look and smell for cleanliness and odors
Use all five senses. Trust the first reaction.
The Alzheimer’s Association adds: is the activity listed for this hour actually happening? Is personal care done with dignity? Can people move around indoors? Are indoor and outdoor areas safe and monitored? Is the dining room pleasant, or is a TV shouting over the meal?
Things the rules let you watch for:
- Residents choose where and with whom to sit
- Meals are not routinely served in rooms unless the care plan says so
- If people cannot freely leave, you are looking at a secure environment — ask for that packet, not just a brochure
- They can show you where the latest inspection report sits
- The administrator or designee’s name is available
Practical observations (not a state scorecard): a urine smell or heavy cover-up cleaner; staff who talk over residents or ignore call lights; an empty activity room at the hour the calendar promised a group; one person cooking, answering the door, and passing medications in a full house. If you see that, ask how “enough staff” works on that shift.
After the tour
Take the admission packet, resident agreement, resident rights, and house rules home. Talk it over. Visit again. Do not sign on tour day.
If something looks wrong and it is safe to start there, use the home’s posted grievance process. Homes must have one, and residents may speak up without fear of reprisal. Save your notes.
Long-term care ombudsman — free, confidential, for residents of licensed assisted living and skilled nursing homes.
- Region 11 (Garfield, Mesa, Moffat, Rio Blanco): the state directory lists intake at 970-248-2717. The Mesa County AAA page lists 970-683-2676. Call both if needed and ask which line is current.
- State office: 303-862-3524 · coombudsman.org/contact
Every licensed long-term care home should post the assigned ombudsman’s name.
CDPHE complaints. Anyone can file, including anonymously, about quality of care, resident rights, or building safety. Investigations usually look back no more than a year. Start from the complaint process page or ALR consumer resources. For an involuntary discharge, use the appeal form on the consumer-resources page and call the ombudsman.
Hilltop ADRC — free options counseling. 970-248-2746, option 1. Hilltop also operates senior housing. The ADRC is the counseling program, not a referral to Hilltop homes.
Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Colorado — Heather Jones, 970-248-2717. That is the same number the state ombudsman directory lists for Region 11 intake. Ask which program you have reached.
If Medicaid may be needed, ask Rocky Mountain Health Plans (the Mesa County Case Management Agency) whether the home is ACF-certified: 800-346-4643 or 970-243-7050.
Official pages this guide is based on
- CDPHE Find and Compare Facilities
- CDPHE assisted living residences
- CDPHE ALR consumer resources
- CDPHE health facilities complaints
- 6 CCR 1011-1 Chapter 7 (effective March 17, 2025)
- Alzheimer’s Association: long-term care
- Find an ombudsman
- Mesa County AAA
This page does not recommend, rank, or place anyone. Check the CDPHE license yourself, take the packet home, and do not sign on tour day.