Media Release

For Immediate Release
December 10, 2004
Contact: Robert Marshall PhD 222-1017

Department of Health to Study Nursing Home Complaint Process; Study to focus on improving responsiveness to residents, families and providers

Today the RI Department of Health (HEALTH) announced a new initiative to study the process for responding to complaints about nursing homes. The study, which will involve an independent, outside consultant aims to produce recommendations for improving the speed and effectiveness of the process and should be completed by March 31st.

“Responding to nursing home complaints is a key issue for assuring safety and quality health care in Rhode Island,” said Patricia A. Nolan, MD, MPH Director of the RI Department of Health. “We do a good job with the limited resources that we have, but think we can do better. We expect this study to give us some specific recommendations on how to improve the process. We are looking for concrete steps we can take to improve quality health care for all Rhode Islanders.”

In August 2004 HEALTH reorganized the Complaint Unit to consolidate the processing of complaints and reports about licensed health facilities—including nursing homes. This new study will aim to make the process more efficient and effective. One focus will be on making the communication with patients, families, health care providers and others more timely. It will also review the process for analyzing complaint information to identify problems with quality of care related to individual patients or systemic problems in nursing homes.

According to a recent data analysis, HEALTH received 1037 complaints and incident reports between July 2003 and June 2004. Complaints usually come from nursing home residents, their family members, friends, the State Ombudsman or other individuals. Nursing homes make incident reports when certain “reportable events” occur (such as a resident injured by falling from a bed). These account for about 66% (684) of the total complaints and incident reports. There were 353 complaints logged in during this period. Of those 96 (27%) were “substantiated”. In other words the follow up investigations found sufficient evidence to support regulatory action. Most complaints (66%) were “not substantiated.” Others were closed administratively (4) and undergoing continuing investigation (25). Recent analysis also revealed that HEALTH investigated 85 complaints from the State Ombudsman during the four years between January 2000 and November 2004. Of those, 18 (22%) were substantiated.

Improving the nursing home complaint system was discussed by various recent reports on the regulation of nursing homes in Rhode Islands—such as the Report to the Governor (September 17, 2003) and the resulting Nursing Home Patient Safety Act proposal which identifies the need for additional resources to “complete complaint investigations.”