Regulators cite AdventHealth for inadequate patient complaint response process
ASHEVILLE – AdventHealth in Hendersonville received a citation from regulators for failing to allow a behavioral health patient to speak to a patient advocate.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services dictated that the hospital “must establish a process for prompt resolution of patient grievances and must inform each patient whom to contact to file a grievance” in a Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Corrections obtained by Citizen Times public records request. Regulators completed the corresponding survey May 12.
Details about the specific interaction that led to the citation were redacted. Charles Epstein, legal communications specialist for NCDHHS said that the state made redactions to “this and other records produced according to” state laws protecting identity theft, sensitive public security information and privileged patient information.
To address the regulators’ citations, AdventHealth proposed updates to its patient complaint and resolution policy. The updated policies needed approval from the state by June 6; the Citizen Times has requested that the state and AdventHealth provide documentation concerning this approval. AdventHealth spokesperson Victoria Dunkle declined to release the documentation, saying in a Aug. 8 email to the Citizen Times that it was against company policy. NCDHHS has not responded to this Citizen Times’ request.
According to the AdventHealth Plan of Correction, the Hendersonville hospital was required to submit various forms of corroboration that they complied with the plan of correction.
The plan of correction provided by AdventHealth notes that the current process “identify policy gaps that lack specific procedural instructions for escalating patient complaints and grievances. Annual education provided to the workforce lacks content about Patient Rights, specifically related to complaint and grievance escalation.”
AdventHealth proposed several changes to address the deficiency including adding a “patient rights violation” as an example of a grievance, creating a procedure for escalating patient complaints, developing reporting and escalation instructions for patient right violations and for connecting patients to advocates.
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AdventHealth Hendersonville changed its name from Park Ridge Health in 2019.
The hospital planned to re-educate their employees on the processes for addressing patient grievances, which according to Dunkle, they achieved. As part of the plan of corrections, AdventHealth also created procedures for educating new employees. According to the plan of corrections, the hospital planned to hang posters in every patient room in certain sections of the hospital listing the contact information for every department leader.
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Dunkle reiterated these actions in a statement to the Citizen Times. “AdventHealth Hendersonville took immediate action to address the request from the state survey,” she said.
NCDHHS granted AdventHealth an initial certification to open a 67-bed acute care hospital in Buncombe County. Nearby competitor, Mission Hospital, which was purchased by for-profit HCA Healthcare in 2019, is challenging the state’s ruling.
AdventHealth is a nonprofit hospital system based in Florida that has more than 1,600 locations around the country.
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Mitchell Black covers Buncombe County and healthcare for the Citizen Times. Email him at mblack@citizentimes.com or follow him on Twitter @MitchABlack. Please help support local journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: AdventHealth in Hendersonville cited by NC health department
