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If you have a family member living in an assisted living facility, it can be hard to trust someone else with their well-being. Sometimes, the facility’s staff even violates your trust. At this point, you may wonder how you can file an official complaint about the facility.
To make a complaint about an assisted living facility, you usually have to detail the event and file your complaint via email, fax, mail, or phone. However, the process of filing a complaint against an assisted living facility can vary from state to state.
It’s important to remember that making a complaint always has to be an official process. The complaint is not recognized if you simply run to the facility and talk to them. There’s usually an entirely legal process you must go through to make the complaint, so let’s find out how you can get started.
1. Gather Information About What Happened
The first step in the process is to always gather information about what happened. When you make the complaint, the department that accepts it will always want to know the specifics of what took place.
There are many reasons why you may want to make a complaint. Action is taken as quickly as possible, but more pressing issues usually take priority. For example, abuse will usually take priority over exploitation. Both are huge problems, but if a resident is being abused, it’s crucial to get them out of the situation.
Some issues you may be reporting include:
- Physical Abuse
- Verbal Abuse
- Sexual Abuse
- Exploitation
- Neglect
There is very specific information you’ll typically be required to provide in the complaint. You can expect to be asked several different things, including:
- What happened? This is the part where you’ll detail the specifics of what took place with your loved one. If you’re making a complaint about the facility, you’ll also fill in that information here.
- To whom did it happen? This is fairly straightforward. You’ll be expected to know who is or was affected by what happened.
- When did it happen? Timing is often an extraordinarily important part of filing a complaint. Sometimes, complaints cannot be accepted past a certain time frame, say thirty or sixty days.
- Where did it happen? You’ll want to know where it occurred if it’s an abuse incident. Did it happen in the resident’s room, outside, cafeteria, or elsewhere?
- Who is the complaint against? While filing the complaint against the facility, you need to know who abused, neglected, or defrauded your loved one.
It can take some time to gather all the information, but it’s important to know as much as possible. Otherwise, the complaint may not hold up in a legal situation.
Once you’ve gathered the information, it’s time to move to the next step.
2. Find Out to Whom You Should Report the Complaint
This is the part that varies from state to state. Each jurisdiction has a department or collection of people handling complaints about assisted living facilities.
In some states, such as Washington, an entire organization handles healthcare complaints. Within that organization, a specific division handles assisted living facility complaints. In other states, complaints are filed with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).
You can usually find the appropriate contact information for your state by doing a quick Google search of “How to file a complaint against an assisted living facility in (insert state here).” You can also check directly with the facility.
While they may not be happy about the complaint, most are legally obligated to tell you where it should go.
Typically you’ll be sending the complaint to one of a few different people.
You may send it to the executive director of the assisted living facility first. In general, out of respect, it’s best to attempt a conversation with the executive director first before taking further steps. In many cases, they can eliminate the problem by letting go of abusive or neglectful staff and getting your loved ones the care they need.
You may also need to contact the Long-Term Care (LTC) Ombudsman, a program designed to assist with any problems with the health, safety, welfare, and rights of anyone who lives in a long-term care facility. If you aren’t sure who to contact for your specific issue, this organization can almost always help you.
You can contact Adult Protective Services (APS) for immediate intervention if worse comes to worst. This organization intervenes in negligent and abusive situations with older adults and adults with disabilities. Usually, they have the authority to remove your loved one from the facility and sometimes can get an investigation launched immediately.
3. File the Complaint
You’ll usually file the complaint in one of four ways. In most states, it can be done through email, fax, mail, or telephone. No matter which way you choose, you should expect to have gathered all the information I previously discussed.
Their respective state governments license almost all assisted living facilities. That said, they usually have certain restrictions and rules they must adhere to when operating. The facility’s upper management, for example, the executive director, is responsible for ensuring that other managers and staff are treating the residents properly.
When you’re ready to file the complaint, you first need to decide which method works best for you. In most situations, you can do so if you’d rather file anonymously. It’s much easier to do this by telephone or mail rather than by email or fax.
How you file your complaint will also depend on how dire the situation is. If you want to file a complaint about the facility’s food quality, you may choose to do it through email and wait longer for a response. If you’re filing a complaint for abuse, on the other hand, you’ll probably want to do so via telephone since this is normally the quickest way to speak to someone.
To file the complaint, you’ll first choose your method of contact and then begin detailing what happened, to whom it happened, and who you believe or know is the cause of the problem.
Many states also have an official complaint form that you will be expected to fill in.
If you speak with someone directly rather than going through one of the other routes, you can expect a lot of questions. The good news is, even though this often takes longer. Usually, you’ll be able to get more information out there. Questions often lead to more questions, and this process can help you remember things you’d perhaps forgotten to include.
Remaining Calm When Filing the Complaint
Worrying is a natural response when you feel like your loved one is in danger. However, being overly emotional in the situation will likely do more harm than good.
After you make the complaint, it may be weeks before you hear back. You should be prepared to wait, and if you’re too concerned about your loved one, look at moving them into a different assisted living facility, either temporarily or permanently.
If you’ve chosen to call to make your complaint, you may notice that the person receiving the complaint isn’t especially empathetic towards the situation, even if it seems dire to you. In this situation, it’s natural to want to over-emphasize the importance of the situation, usually in anger.
However, you will more than likely end up in a worse situation if you do.
Speak calmly, gather information, and logically present the information when filing a complaint.
4. Wait To Hear Back
Once you submit the complaint, it can take some time before you hear back. As I mentioned, sometimes it can take weeks to hear back, but usually, in more serious cases, you’ll hear back sooner.
In the meantime, you can take other steps, such as removing your loved one from the assisted living facility, contacting Adult Protective Services (APS), or contacting the assisted living facility directly.
You should expect an investigation to be opened into the facility fairly immediately, however. If the department that receives your complaint feels like it’s a major concern of abuse, neglect, or even mild mistreatment, they’ll typically go ahead and get an investigation opened.
What To Do Once an Investigation Is Launched
If the department chooses to open an investigation, a lot can change. If it’s found that abuse or neglect is occurring with multiple residents and can be proven, the facility will be completely shut down.
The facility’s residents may need to be moved temporarily and may be asked multiple questions about the staff, living conditions, etc. This can be especially stressful for the residents.
You also may find that various people are reaching out to you, your family, and the family members of the other residents to ask questions about how the residents have been treated in the past.
In many cases, once an investigation into a facility has been launched, it can be ongoing for some time. This is because the investigators typically look at more than just a single situation.
For example, if abuse was reported, the investigator would first look at the abuse and question the residents about being abused. Then they’ll go on to look at things that may constitute neglect, such as dirty and unsanitized spaces.
As the investigation continues, you may be asked to attend a court hearing against the assisted living facility if the evidence is found. In this case, the court may ask you to present your testimony of what happened, how many times it has happened, and so forth.
Most investigations don’t last more than a few months, but be aware that this time can be extra stressful for residents and their families.
What if the Facility Gets Shut Down?
The facility getting shut down is definitely a possibility. If it’s discovered that there have been multiple abuse and neglect accounts, then it’s highly likely that it will be shut down, at least until it can be taken over by new management and staff.
If the facility does get shut down and you’ve not already relocated your loved one to a different assisted living facility, it can be tough to find a place in the immediate area. In most cases, however, other facilities will open their doors to you.
You may find in this situation that your loved one has high anxiety about moving into a different facility. They are likely to be afraid, especially if they’ve been in the same facility for some time, and it may take some coaxing on your part to help them adjust to a new situation.
5. The Aftermath
After an investigation has been launched and completed, it can often feel devastating. If the complaint was filed over a fairly minor issue like, for example, food quality, then some changes will be implemented, and life should return to normal shortly.
However, stricter measures may be put in place if the complaints were filed about a more serious situation. The facility may require cameras in every room, hallway, and common area. It may also be required to let go of a large amount of staff and rehire.
These things are very stressful on elderly people, so plan to be around a little more often than you were before, providing comfort and reassurance to your loved one.
The changeover in staff can be especially stressful. The older population, similar to children, often gets attached to their specific caregivers.
Did you know that some states let you install a camera in the assisted living facility without any permission? Learn more about this in my in-depth guide on the topic. Can You Put Cameras in Assisted Living Facilities?
What if Nothing Ever Happened After Making the Complaint
There may be situations where the department in charge of complaints didn’t feel it warranted to make one. Usually, in these situations, the department was either overwhelmed with other matters or the situation was minor.
Be aware also that in many cases, the complaints are taken directly to the executive directors of the assisted living facilities. The directors are then expected to carry the line of command and change the facility. You may never even know that this has taken place.
You can always file another complaint. There are no laws that limit the number of complaints you can file at any given time.
Final Thoughts
Making a complaint to an assisted living facility has its challenges, but overall, the process is fairly simple. The real difficulty lies in handing over control to someone else and trusting they will care for the problem.
As a quick review, to make a complaint, you’ll need to gather information about what happened and to whom it happened, figure out who you need to contact in your state, and finally file the complaint and wait to hear back.
Remember, all things must be recorded to be considered official.
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