Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 340 - Department of Human Services › Chapter 105 - Aging Services › Subchapter 11 - State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program › Part 37 - STATE LONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN PROGRAM › Section 340:105-11-237.1 - Complaint processing

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
(a) Regardless of
				  the source of the complaint the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman
				  (Office), State Long-Term Care Ombudsman (Ombudsman), and Office
				  representatives serve long-term care facility residents to identify,
				  investigate, and resolve complaints. The Ombudsman or Office representative
				  investigates complaints including, but not limited to, abuse, neglect, or
				  exploitation for the purposes of resolving the complaint to the resident's
				  satisfaction and to protect the resident's health, safety, welfare, and rights.
				  The Ombudsman or Office representative may identify, investigate, and resolve a
				  complaint impacting multiple or all facility residents.
(b) Regardless of the source of the
				  complaint, including when the source is the Ombudsman or Office representative,
				  the Ombudsman or Office representative must support and maximize resident
				  participation in the complaint resolution process.
(1) The Ombudsman or Office representative
				  must offer the resident privacy for confidentially purposes, when providing
				  information and hearing, investigating, and resolving complaints.
(2) The Ombudsman or Office representative
				  must discuss the complaint with the resident and resident representative when
				  the resident is unable to communicate informed consent, to:
(A) determine his or her
				  perspective;
(B) request informed
				  consent to investigate the complaint;
(C) determine the resident's or his or her
				  representative's perspective on complaint resolution including if the
				  allegations are reported and, when so, if the Ombudsman or Office
				  representative releases resident identifying information or other relevant
				  information to the facility and/or appropriate agencies. Such report and
				  disclosure is consistent with (b)(3) of this Section;
(D) advise the resident and resident
				  representative of the resident's rights, when applicable;
(E) work with the resident or resident
				  representative to develop a plan of action to resolve the complaint, when
				  applicable;
(F) investigate the
				  complaint to determine if the complaint can be verified; and
(G) determine if the complaint is resolved to
				  the resident's or resident representative's satisfaction.
(3) When the resident is unable to
				  communicate and does not have a representative to provide informed consent the
				  Ombudsman or Office representative:
(A) takes
				  appropriate steps to investigate and works to resolve the complaint in order to
				  protect the resident's health, safety, welfare, and rights; and
(B) determines if the complaint was resolved
				  to the complainant's satisfaction.
(4) To determine whether to rely on a
				  resident representative to communicate or make determinations on the resident's
				  behalf for complaint processing, the Ombudsman or Office representative
				  ascertains the extent of the authority granted to the resident's representative
				  under court order, by power of attorney, or other document the resident used to
				  grant authority to the representative.