Regulatory · Palmelle Answers
How do I report a bad nursing home?
Call your state's long-term care ombudsman. Free, confidential, federally mandated. Most families don't know they exist — and the ones that use them get results.
Every state has a Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, established by federal law specifically to advocate for residents of nursing homes, assisted living, and other long-term care settings. It is free, confidential, and not part of the facility you're complaining about. It's the most useful underused resource in long-term care.
What ombudsmen do:
- Take complaints from residents, family members, friends, or anyone with concerns
- Investigate at the resident's request (and only with consent)
- Advocate for resolution between the family and the facility
- Connect families to state inspectors, adult protective services, or law enforcement when warranted
- Provide guidance on resident rights, transfer/discharge protections, and care planning
What to do, in order:
- Document. Dates, times, photos when appropriate, names of staff involved, what was said and what was done. Specifics matter.
- Raise it inside the facility first. Charge nurse, then DON (Director of Nursing), then administrator. Get responses in writing or document the date and substance of verbal responses.
- If unresolved, contact your state's long-term care ombudsman. Find yours at theconsumervoice.org/get_help. The contact is confidential — the facility won't be told who reported.
- For serious concerns — abuse, neglect, immediate harm — file a complaint with state survey/certification. In most states, this is the Department of Health or equivalent. Complaint surveys often happen within days for high-severity reports.
- For criminal conduct — physical or sexual abuse, financial exploitation, theft — call adult protective services and consider local law enforcement.
- For Medicare/Medicaid fraud — improper billing, unnecessary services, kickbacks — contact the HHS Office of Inspector General hotline.
What you can expect:
- Investigations take time. Routine survey results often take 30–60 days.
- Complaint surveys can happen quickly for serious allegations.
- Retaliation against residents who complain is illegal under federal law. Document any signs of it.
- Discharge or transfer in retaliation is also unlawful, and there are specific protections residents can invoke.
The ombudsman program exists for the conversation you don't want to have. Use it.