Complaints - Health Care Facilities and Nursing Homes

Office of Health Assurance and Licensing-Complaint Unit, is the centralized contact point and a coordinated information source for allegations of non-compliance with state and/or federal rules and regulations.

Includes:

• Nursing homes, skilled nursing and nursing facilities.

• Hospitals.

• Residential homes, intermediate care facilities for persons with intellectual disabilities, unlicensed homes, county homes.

• Home health agencies, hospice agencies, dialysis centers, inpatient rehabilitation centers, ambulatory surgical centers, birthing centers, rural health clinics, free-standing radiation therapy centers, mobile diagnostic imaging centers, portable X-rays.

• Solid organ transplant services, bone marrow/stem cell transplantation services.

• Adult and pediatric cardiac catheterization services, obstetric/newborn units.

• Clinical laboratories and plasmapheresis centers.

• Any other federally certified or ODH-licensed health care service or treatment provider.

ODH strives to ensure that Ohioans residing in or utilizing regulated health care entities in Ohio are provided a safe environment and high quality of care. The Complaint Unit assists this effort by helping to ensure participating health care providers continually meet Medicare/Medicaid and state requirements by referring all complaints to the appropriate ODH regional offices or to other state agencies for investigation.  A complaint investigation is unannounced and the identity of the complainant and resident(s) are never divulged. The Complaint Unit utilizes a computer program that provides an effective provides for the processing complaints received from initial contact through intake and investigation to close-out.

Complaints are investigated by the Bureau of Survey and Certification using the survey process of that specific provider type. The complaint survey is a partial survey of the specific nature of the complaint as it relates to the federal regulations and/or the state rules and regulations. The bureau has two regional offices throughout Ohio that maintain staff for the actual investigation.

To help facilitate processing of your complaint, please provide as much detailed information as known about your complaint. This would include the: name and address of the facility; date and time of your concern; and, identifiable resident, patient, and staff information.  More information on how to file a complaint can be found in this  Guide to Filing a Complaint Against a Health Care Facility.  To file a complaint you may obtain a complaint form for completion by clicking this Complaint Form link.

Telephone:

1-800-342-0553
1-800-669-3534 Home Health Hotline