Knoxville Senior AdvisorBy Knoxville Senior Advisor Care Team · September 3, 2026
Every assisted living building around Knoxville has a public record with the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission. Check the license status, licensed and secured beds, last survey date, original licensure and disciplinary count. Of the 57 licensed ACLFs in the seven counties, 29 have at least one disciplinary action listed.
Why the state record comes first
Touring is where families fall in love with a building. The chandelier in the lobby, the smell of fresh bread, the friendly marketing director: all of it matters, and none of it tells you what state surveyors found the last time they came. That is why we suggest spending twenty minutes with the public record before the first visit, so the tour becomes a conversation about specific things.
In Tennessee, assisted living is licensed as an assisted-care living facility, or ACLF, by the Health Facilities Commission (HFC). The commission publishes a searchable facility listing and a quarterly bed report. Our directory reproduces both for Knox, Blount, Anderson, Loudon, Sevier, Roane and Union counties, but you can also search the state's listing yourself at internet.health.tn.gov/FacilityListings.
Field one: license status and expiration
An active license reads "Licensed" with an expiration date. Tennessee ACLF licenses run for one year and renew on the anniversary of the first issue, so the date should always be less than a year away. A building that lets its license lapse for more than 60 days must reapply and be inspected again.
If a residence you are considering does not appear at all, ask what license it holds. Some places that call themselves personal care homes or senior residences hold no care license, which limits what they can legally do.
Field two: licensed beds and secured beds
Licensed beds are the legal ceiling on residents. Around Knoxville they range from 16 to 125, with a median of 70. Secured beds are the official count of locked memory care beds; 37 of the 57 ACLFs report them, and 8 are secured from end to end.
Because Tennessee has no separate memory care license, the secured-bed count is the only state evidence that a locked unit exists. If a brochure says "memory care" and the bed report says zero secured beds, ask what the brochure means.
Field three: the date of last survey
The rule calls for an unannounced inspection within 15 months of the last one. In the current listings, the median ACLF survey date in the seven counties is 38 months old, and 55 of 56 listed dates are older than 15 months. We do not read that as proof of missed inspections; public listings are not always updated promptly.
What it does mean is that you should ask for the most recent statement of deficiencies and the plan of correction that answered it. A well-run building hands those over without fuss.
Fields four and five: original licensure and disciplinary actions
The original licensure date tells you how long the license has existed at that address. A recent date on an older building can signal a change of ownership, which is worth a question about what changed for staff and residents.
The disciplinary count links to each order. In Tennessee most are consent orders with civil monetary penalties, typically $1,000 per violation and up to $3,000 per resident for keeping someone the license does not allow. Read what was cited, not only the amount.
| Number of HFC disciplinary actions listed | ACLFs in the seven counties |
|---|---|
| 0 | 28 |
| 1 | 20 |
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 1 |
A worked example
Suppose a West Knoxville community's record shows an active license expiring next spring, 99 licensed beds with 30 secured, a last survey date about three years old, an original license from 2008 and one disciplinary action from 2023. That record suggests a mid-sized building with a substantial memory care unit and a long history. It also gives you three questions: what the 2023 action was about, what the most recent survey found, and how the secured unit is staffed at night.
None of those questions is hostile. A confident administrator answers all three in a few minutes, and the way the answers are given tells you a good deal about the building's culture.
Turning the record into tour questions
Bring the record with you. If the survey date is old, ask for the newest survey. If there is an order, ask what happened and what monitoring is in place. If secured beds are listed, ask to see the unit's daily staffing record, which the rule requires. If none are listed, ask at what point the building would ask a resident with dementia to move.
Finally, check the management company. Several Knoxville-area buildings share operators, and the records of sister buildings tell you how a company behaves when problems arise.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I look up a Tennessee assisted living license?
Search the Health Facilities Commission's Health Care Facilities listing at internet.health.tn.gov/FacilityListings, or use our directory, which reproduces every active ACLF license in the seven counties.
Does Tennessee post assisted living inspection reports online?
Not in bulk. Ask the facility for its latest statement of deficiencies, or request it through HFC's public records portal.
Is a facility with a disciplinary action unsafe?
Not necessarily. Read what was cited and ask what changed; an old consent order with a fixed problem means something different from a recent pattern.
