HELMS: New Online Portal for Submitting Applications, Renewals, Status Changes, and Account Updates
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) recently launched a new licensing system for all health professionals and facilities in Washington state on April 29, 2025. The Healthcare Enforcement and Licensing Management System (HELMS) was developed to create efficiencies, improve user experience, streamline processing, strengthen data access, and reduce paper-based activities.
Please note, as a nurse or applicant for a nursing credential, you will need to manually add the HELMS Portal when renewing or applying in HELMS for the first time. This step is completed once you have logged into your current or new Secure Access Washington (SAW) account. If you have held, currently hold, or have ever applied for a healthcare credential in Washington state, you will need to locate your account within HELMS to link these credentials to your account. Please only create a new account if this is the first time you have ever applied to Washington state for any healthcare credential.
We are also experiencing longer than usual application processing times due to this recent implementation. Thank you for your patience as we process applications in date order received.