The Washington State Department of Health is excited to announce the upcoming launch of a new licensing system for all health professionals and facilities in Washington during the third week of February 2025! The Health Enforcement and Licensing Management System (HELMS) will help create efficiencies, improve user experience, streamline processing, strengthen data access, and reduce paper-based activities.
February Credentialing Freeze
Ahead of the HELMS launch, all licensing and credentialing systems will be unavailable in order to make system upgrades. This freeze will be during President’s Day weekend from Friday, February 14 at 5 p.m. until the morning of Wednesday, February 19, 2025, to allow our team to transition data and launch the new system.
The Washington State Board of Nursing (WABON) understands that having our systems down for these days will impact nurses needing to renew online or nursing applicants needing to apply for a license. We strongly recommend that nurses or nursing applicants consider applying or renewing prior to February 14, 2025 to avoid any issues. You can renew your license up to 90 days before your expiration date.
What you need to know:
- Do not wait to renew your license. Renew prior to February 14, 2025, to avoid delays.
- Finish applications in progress within the current online application portal ahead of the freeze and do not expect updates between February 14-19, 2025.
- No updates or changes will be made to licenses during the freeze. Search tools like Provider Credential Search will still be available but will not be updated during the freeze.
Thank you for your consideration and support during this transition. We look forward to sharing HELMS with you!
Stay Connected
If you have questions or concerns regarding the licensing freeze or the HELMS system, please reach out to the HELMS team at HELMS@doh.wa.gov.
If you have questions or concerns regarding your pending nursing application or nursing renewal, please reach out to WABON at nursing@doh.wa.gov or 360-236-4703.