Wheelchairs, Diets and Ambulation: Decoding Hawaii's Care Home Roster

The columns

The Department of Health's Combined ARCH / Expanded ARCH report, updated April 2026, has a row for every licensed care home in the state. Besides the name, license number and expiration date, it records the license type, licensed capacity and three columns about who the home can serve: ambulation, wheelchair and diet.

License type comes first

Type I means five or fewer residents; Type II means six or more. Expanded means the home may keep residents at nursing facility level of care within its limits. If your parent is at or near nursing level, filter for expanded homes first. If they are not, a regular ARCH may be fine, but consider whether a second move later would be hard on them.

Ambulation

Hawaii's ARCH rules define ambulatory as able to move from place to place on foot without human assistance, and fully ambulatory as able to do so without any mechanical device or human help (HAR 11-100.1-2). On the roster, a home marked Fully Ambulatory is signalling that it expects residents to walk without a walker or cane. Most Oahu homes are marked Ambulatory. For a parent who needs a walker or help to transfer, ask the home directly what it can manage, and whether the license or the building limits it.

Wheelchair and diet

The wheelchair column records whether a home accepts wheelchair users; on Oahu, 360 homes say yes and 94 say no. A yes on the roster is a starting point, not a guarantee that every room, bathroom and entrance works for your parent's chair. Ask to see the bathroom and the route from the bedroom to the front door. The diet column records whether the home handles special diets (such as diabetic, low-sodium or texture-modified) or regular diets only; 427 Oahu homes are marked Special.

A shortlist in five minutes

Here is a quick way to use the columns. Start with town: pick the two or three Oahu towns where the family can visit easily. Filter for expanded homes if nursing-level care is likely. Keep homes that say yes to wheelchairs if your parent uses one, and Special diet if they need a diabetic or texture-modified diet. Sort by capacity if you prefer a smaller or larger household. Open the latest inspection report for each remaining home. You will usually end up with five to eight homes worth a call.

What the roster does not show

The roster does not show price, openings, the care giver's languages, whether the home takes Med-QUEST members, or how the home feels. It also does not show the operator's track record at other homes, although the inspection index lets you search by name. Treat the roster as a filter and the phone call and visit as the decision.

Our care home roster leaves off street addresses and operators' personal names because most homes are private residences; the state's own report has them when you are ready to visit.

Expiration dates and renewals

Each row also carries the license expiration date. A care home license runs for one year or another period the department sets, and the license is issued to a named licensee for one specific house. An expiration date in the past on the roster usually means the renewal is in process or the roster has not caught up; ask the home to show its current posted license, which the rules require it to display where visitors can see it. A license number that changes between rosters can mean a new licensee or a move to a new address, both of which require a new license rather than a transfer.

If you are comparing homes over several months, download the newest roster each time. OHCA posts updated editions on its State Licensing Section page, and our directory is rebuilt from each new edition.

Capacity and openings

Licensed capacity is the most residents the home may have, counting any day care clients. It is not the number of open beds. The roster's file name calls it a vacancy report, and it carries male and female columns, but openings change week to week, so call. Our care home roster shows these columns for every Oahu home and lets you filter by town and license type, sort by capacity and open the latest inspection report from the same row.