Sec. 20194.

(1) Subject to subsections (2), (3), and (4), a health facility or agency, except a health facility or agency licensed under part 209, and including a health facility that is not licensed under this article but holds itself out as providing medical services, shall conspicuously display in the patient waiting areas or other common areas of the health facility or agency copies of a pamphlet developed by the department of consumer and industry services outlining the procedure for filing a complaint against a health facility or agency with the department and the procedure for filing a complaint against an individual who is licensed or registered under article 15 and employed by, under contract to, or granted privileges by the health facility or agency. The pamphlet shall be developed and distributed by the department of consumer and industry services after consultation with appropriate professional associations.

(2) The department of consumer and industry services shall develop the pamphlets required under subsection (1) in languages that are appropriate to the ethnic composition of the patient population where the pamphlet will be displayed. The department shall use large, easily readable type and nontechnical, easily understood language in the pamphlet. The department shall periodically distribute copies of the pamphlet to each health facility or agency and to each unlicensed health facility described in subsection (1).

(3) The department of consumer and industry services shall include a model standardized complaint form in the pamphlet described in subsection (1). The department may develop a separate model standardized complaint form that is specific to a particular health facility or agency or category of health facilities and agencies. The department shall develop a model standardized complaint form that is specific to nursing homes. The department shall include on the model standardized complaint form, at a minimum, simple instructions on how to file a complaint, including with the nursing home as required under section 21723, the department, the state long-term care ombudsman, the Michigan protection and advocacy service, inc., and the health care fraud unit of the department of attorney general. The department shall distribute copies of the model standardized complaint form simultaneously with copies of the pamphlet as required under subsection (2). The nursing home shall conspicuously display and make available multiple copies of the pamphlet and model standardized complaint form with the complaint information required to be posted under section 21723 in the patient waiting areas or other common areas of the nursing home that are easily accessible to nursing home patients and their visitors, as described in subsection (1), and shall provide a copy of the pamphlet and complaint form to each nursing home resident or the resident's surrogate decision maker upon admission to the nursing home. The department shall include on the model standardized complaint form a telephone number for the receipt of oral complaints.

(4) The department may continue to distribute the complaint pamphlets within its possession on the effective date of the amendatory act that added this subsection until the department's stock is exhausted or until October 1, 2003, whichever is sooner. Beginning October 1, 2003, the department shall only distribute the complaint pamphlets and model standardized complaint forms that are in compliance with subsections (2) and (3).

(5) The department shall make the complaint pamphlet and the model standardized complaint form available to the public on the department's internet website. The department shall take affirmative action toward the development and implementation of an electronic filing system that would allow an individual to file a complaint through the website.

History: Add. 1993, Act 79, Eff. Apr. 1, 1994 ;-- Am. 2003, Act 3, Imd. Eff. Apr. 22, 2003 Popular Name: Act 368