How to start a Nursing Home in Ukraine?

In this article, we will consider some issues of establishment and operation of “nursing homes” in Ukraine from the legal point of view.

How to register a “nursing home” and what problems can arise?

You won’t find such a term as “nursing home” in the current Ukrainian legislation. But the legislator uses the terms "adult residential facility”, “war and labor veterans geriatric home” or “geriatric home” (hereinafter - GH).

The main task of the GH is to provide adequate living conditions, services and medical care to elderly people and disabled persons. To this end, the clients of geriatric homes are provided with all necessary means (housing, clothing, shoes, etc.), prepared meals, necessary medical care and conditions that facilitate their adaptation in such a facility.

GH activities in Ukraine is a state monopoly, because such facilities are created, subordinated, financed and controlled exclusively by state authorities.

However, the current legislation does not contain an explicit prohibition to establish private companies that would provide the population with housing and medical care services on a paid basis. And although for a long time there have been talks about legalization of private geriatric homes, this issue has not been resolved yet, so there is a significant demand for alternative forms of activity in this area.

It is necessary to understand that provision of such complex services requires preliminary planning and structuring of the business, as the company shall solve the following problems:

• how to combine housing/food services (i.e., related services) with medical services;
• how to find the necessary premises to carry out the activities: the key point is that the premises where the medical procedures will be carried out must be transferred to a non-housing stock, and the appropriate permits for these premises must be obtained;
• how to record in official documents the scope of obligations/liabilities/payment for services provided - the problem is that there is uncertainty in the legislation regarding the regulation of such assistance, and without specific “rules of the game”, this type of facilities may very often face negative situations.

Our company has supported the start of several such facilities, and has a clear understanding of how to solve these problems.

Stages of starting an alternative nursing home in Ukraine

1) Company registration. To begin with, you need to decide on the form of business - as an option, you can choose the most popular LLC or sole proprietorship. At this stage, you should also decide on the taxation group. We advise you to choose the third or second group of single tax, respectively.

Based on our practice, we can say that the most common option for starting a business is to set up an LLC, which will provide services for housing / food / nursing care, and to open a sole proprietorship for a medical officer (and in the future - to obtain a Medical License), which will provide medical care to clients.

Such organization is typical for facilities where there is a trusting relationship with the medical officer (or he/she is the ideological founder of the business). The disadvantage of such an organization is that in the case of a sudden termination of cooperation with such an employee, the provision of medical services, even in a minimal format, will be “in the gray zone”.

The business organization, where all services are provided by a legal entity, will simplify the accounting and administrative procedures, but may give rise to additional difficulties: obtaining a Medical License for an LLC for such facilities requires the establishment of a health care institution. This means that even if medical services are limited to minimal medical assistance in therapeutic physical training or nursing care, the institution must have a medical director, who will monitor the provision of medical care. Usually, hiring such an employee is not profitable for such institutions, so it may be an unnecessary problem.

Our experts will assess your situation and offer you the best option based on your plans and budget.

2) In order to provide future Clients with accommodation, first of all, a company must register the appropriate types of economic activities (KVED). We advise you to choose the following KVEDs:

55.90 Other means of temporary accommodation;

55.10 Hotels and similar temporary accommodation facilities;

68.20 Leasing and exploitation of own or leased real estate.

Of course, except for registration of KVEDs, you shall have a room equipped in accordance with sanitary and housing conditions to accommodate patients.

3) Opening a doctor’s (nurse’s) office in the building where accommodation and catering services will be provided. Such an office is an equipped room used to provide medical services. The procedure of opening an office requires a special license, which is the final and most important stage.

4) Obtaining a Medical License.

In fact, you will get a hostel-type facility with an equipped medical room. You will need to sign an agreement for accommodation and medical services with each resident.

In case of correct execution of documents and their timely submission to the relevant authorities, the whole process of establishing the institution may take 30 business days and more. Such a period is specified provided that the state registration and licensing authorities will not refuse to accept documents due to errors or failure to meet any other conditions specified by the legislation.

If you want to know more about how to fill in the documents for obtaining a license, you can find all the information in our publication and video abstract.

Registration of a geriatric home in Ukraine is a possible, but complicated procedure

Thus, if you want to start an analogue of the geriatric home in Ukraine - you can do it quite legally. You’ll need to create a multi-profile company, which will provide services for housing, medical care, food and clothing.

The company may legalize its activity through the preliminary registration of licenses and permits. The only limitation will be the procedural necessity to refuse the name “geriatric home”, so that your facility is not considered to be created by state authorities.

Do you want to start a facility for elderly people? Don’t hesitate to contact us! Our company can help you at any stage of the establishment of such a facility, or carry out the entire procedure on our own by registering the institution on a turnkey basis.