HospitalInspections.org

The hospital must establish a process for prompt resolution of patient grievances. This STANDARD is not met as evidenced by:

Based on record reviews, staff interviews, and hospital policy review, the hospital failed to provide prompt resolution of patient grievances to 1 of 4 patients (Patient #2) in that Patient #2's grievances were not logged into the hospital Complaint/Grievance Log per hospital policy, no written follow-up letters were completed per hospital policy, the complaint took 14 months to resolve, and Patient #2 did not know if the complaint had been resolved.

Findings included:

1) Patient #2 complained to the hospital in person of inaccurate medical records in 06/2013 when she discovered her medical record was intertwined with Patient #5's medical record (both with the same first names and birth dates).
2) Patient #2 complained to the hospital in person of continued medical record inaccuracies with Patient #5's medical record in 04/2014, 10 months after the first complaint.
3) Patient #2's daughter complained to the hospital by phone of continued medical record inaccuracies with Patient #5's medical record when Patient #2 received a bill for Patient #5 with Patient #5's name and charges, but with Patient #2's address in 08/2014.
4) The hospital Complaint/Grievance Log from 04/2014 to 09/2014 revealed no complaints from Patient #2.
5) The hospital Data Integrity department from 01/2014 to 09/2014 revealed EMR (Electronic Medical Records) corrections for Patient #2 and Patient #5 in 04/2014 and 08/2014.
6) Two hospital staff with the Performance Improvement and Quality Outcomes department (Personnel #1 and #2) were interviewed and acknowledged Patient #2's complaints had not been logged in the hospital Complaint/Grievance Log per hospital policy, and no written follow-up letters were completed per hospital policy.