Last verified: October 2026
How many staff hours does a Pennsylvania personal care home need?
Direct care staff must be available to provide at least 1 hour of personal care a day for each mobile resident and 2 hours a day for each resident with mobility needs, with at least 75% of those hours during waking hours, and a direct care worker aged 21 or older must be in the home whenever a resident is present (55 Pa. Code 2600.57).
The rule sets hours, not a ratio. A 60-resident home with 20 residents who have mobility needs must have 80 direct care hours a day available, at least 60 of them while residents are awake. Ask how the home meets that overnight.
Does an assisted living residence need a nurse in Pennsylvania?
Yes, but only minimally: an ALR must have one licensed nurse in the building or on call and one dietitian on staff or under contract, and it needs no medical director or director of nursing; a personal care home needs no licensed nurse at all.
Both PCHs and ALRs may have unlicensed staff administer medications after they complete the state's Medication Administration Training Program, which is why medication rules are the most-cited sections in Pittsburgh-area inspection reports.
What training does a personal care home administrator need?
Before working as an administrator, a candidate must complete a DHS-approved orientation, a 100-hour standardized administrator training course covering fire safety, medications, CPR and more, and pass a competency test (2600.64); ALR administrators complete the same 100 hours plus additional dementia-specific training (2800.64).
Administrators of PCHs and ALRs are not separately licensed the way nursing home administrators are. Ask how long the current administrator has been in the role.
How much training do direct care workers get?
Every personal care home direct care worker needs 12 hours of annual training, and those working in a secured dementia care unit need 6 more hours of dementia training each year (2600.236); the minimum qualification for direct care staff is a high school diploma.
Training minimums are floors. Turnover, agency staffing and how many of the evening staff are new are better questions than the training-hours figure alone.
Pennsylvania staffing rules: what they are and are not
| They are | They are not | |
|---|---|---|
| Direct care | 1 or 2 hours per resident per day | a fixed staff-to-resident ratio |
| Nurse | required on call for ALRs only | 24-hour nursing |
| Administrator | 100-hour course plus test | a state license |
| Medication aides | trained unlicensed staff | nurses |
