A New Regulation on Licensing Home Healthcare Institutions

November 2017

A relatively new regulation has been introduced in Jordan, which is the Regulation for Licensing Home Healthcare Institutions No. 84 of 2016 (the ‘Regulation’). The Regulation allows patients and their families to hire a home healthcare institution to provide patients with the care that they need in the patients’ place of residence. The Regulation provides that home healthcare services include: (a) medical treatment; (b) nursing care; (c) physiotherapy; (d) occupational therapy; (e) nutrition; (f) psychiatric and counseling services; and (g) audiology and speech therapy.

The Regulation outlines the guidelines for the establishment and operation of such institutions. In particular, it expresses the conditions for the licensing of an institution, in addition to the conditions for applying for the licensing of a home healthcare institution, as well as the events upon which the licence may be revoked.

The Regulation also governs the manner in which the home healthcare institutions are permitted to be operated, including the lists of records and documents that must be maintained by the home healthcare institution. According to the Regulation, the individual who should be responsible for managing the home healthcare institution is the technical director of the facility. The Regulation sets out the conditions for appointing an individual as a technical director, in addition to setting out the obligations and responsibilities with which a technical director must comply.

Moreover, the Regulation stipulates that the Minister of Health shall form a committee at the Ministry of Health titled “the committee for licensing the home healthcare institutions” with the purpose of regulating and managing home healthcare institutions. This committee’s obligations, responsibilities and mandate are set out in the Regulation.

Prior to this Regulation, home healthcare intuitions did not have a formal regulatory framework under which to operate. This Regulation is likely to pave the way for increased accessibility to home healthcare services in Jordan.