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 on April 29, 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.
April Credentialing Freeze
Ahead of the HELMS launch, all licensing and credentialing systems will be unavailable from April 24, 2025, at 5 p.m. until the morning of Tuesday, April 29, 2025. This will allow our team to transition data from the existing system to our 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 April 24, 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. Renewals will not be processed between April 24-29, 2025. We encourage you to renew your license now prior to the freeze.
- Finish online applications in progress within the current online application portal ahead of the freeze and do not expect updates between April 25-28, 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.