North Dakota Facility or system Complaint Route

Authority and scope

Check the facility type and concern

The Health Facilities Unit oversees hospitals, ambulatory surgery, nursing facilities, basic care, home health, hospice, specified outpatient services, ICF/IID and psychiatric residential treatment facilities. Assisted living is a separate licensing category, jointly licensed through Food and Lodging and the Health Response and Licensure Section. Do not use the assisted-living form for basic care simply because both provide residential services.

Supporting guidance: Health Facilities Unit programs ↗Assisted Living licensing ↗

Match the route to the facility type

Health Facilities Unit public concern

Hospitals, surgery, nursing/basic care, home health/hospice and listed outpatient/psychiatric residential facilities; full separate addiction and behavioral-program routing remains unverified.

Open this official route ↗

Assisted Living facility complaint

Assisted living only; this intake expressly redirects other types, including basic care, to Health Facilities.

Open this official route ↗

Submission

Checked steps and filing details to confirm

For Health Facilities, complete the public online concern form or its downloadable version. The page lists hfconcerns@nd.gov, fax 701-328-1890 and Health Facilities, HHS, 1720 Burlington Drive, Suite A, Bismarck, ND 58504-7736; questions may go to 701-328-2352.
Identify the facility, location and type, patient/resident, your relationship, names, dates, times and actions already taken. The downloadable form marks facility name and location required. The page asks whether you have discussed concerns with facility leadership; it does not state that doing so is a prerequisite.
The separate assisted-living form requires the submitter’s name and telephone, facility name/type/location and a detailed concern. It also asks for patient identity, relationship and previous action. Representative-release requirements were not established.

Supporting guidance: Health Facilities concern instructions ↗Health Facilities printable complaint form ↗Assisted Living complaint intake ↗

Limits

What this route may not provide

The assisted-living form explicitly limits its jurisdiction to assisted living and directs other facility concerns to the Health Facilities Unit. The reviewed pages do not establish a universal complaint route for addiction treatment or every behavioral residence. Identify the actual license and service, especially where different programs share an operator or address. These are facility routes, distinct from discipline of an individual practitioner.

Supporting guidance: Health Facilities Unit programs ↗Assisted Living complaint intake ↗

Anonymity

Do not guess about confidentiality

Neither reviewed intake established complete anonymity or confidentiality rules. The assisted-living form requires a name and telephone. Ask the appropriate unit about identity sharing and public records before assuming privacy.

Supporting guidance: Assisted Living complaint intake ↗

Complaint timing

A filing deadline was not established by this check; ask promptly.

Health Facilities warns its email is not monitored 24/7. For a concern needing immediate attention, its page advises contacting facility staff. No investigation-completion target was established.

Supporting guidance: Health Facilities concern instructions ↗

Process

What may happen after filing

Health Facilities evaluates care, services, staff, buildings and equipment against applicable standards. The reviewed filing materials do not explain acknowledgment, status updates or how results are delivered; ask the receiving unit about follow-up.

Supporting guidance: Health Facilities Unit programs ↗

Evidence

Prepare a reviewable submission

State the concern you want reviewed, give a short chronology and factual consequences, and explain your request. Keep supporting records and follow the receiving authority’s instructions before attaching or sending them.

Read the linked authority and process information ↗

Other facility processes to consider

These processes have different purposes. The national guidance below does not establish this state’s filing requirements or change the verification level shown above.

Hospital grievance

For hospitals covered by CMS hospital Conditions of Participation, ask for the grievance contact and written procedure. The hospital must specify response timeframes and give a written decision describing its contact, investigation, results and completion date. These are hospital rules, not a single rule for every facility. You may contact the responsible State Survey Agency without first completing the hospital process.

Supporting guidance: CMS: hospital grievance guidance ↗

State oversight

Match external oversight to the facility type and license. State Survey Agencies help CMS assess federal compliance; state licensing may cover different settings. Confirm jurisdiction rather than assuming one contact handles every clinic or residential program.

Supporting guidance: CMS: State Survey Agency contacts ↗

Medicare quality review and appeals

People with Medicare can ask their Medicare quality-review organization (BFCC-QIO) about eligible quality-of-care concerns. A complaint is different from a fast appeal when discharge or covered services may be ending too soon. Follow the Important Message from Medicare or Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage immediately; the notice identifies the contact and deadline. A routine grievance does not substitute for that appeal.

Supporting guidance: Medicare: fast appeals and BFCC-QIO help ↗

Long-term-care advocacy

Long-Term Care Ombudsmen advocate for residents of nursing homes, assisted living and similar residential settings. They help resolve concerns according to the resident’s wishes; they are not licensing enforcement. Identity disclosure generally requires informed consent, with court-order and specified incapacity exceptions. Ask how resident, representative and complainant consent applies.

Supporting guidance: ACL: Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program ↗45 CFR 1324: Long-Term Care Ombudsman rules ↗

National sources and scope

CMS: hospital grievance guidance ↗

Hospital participation scope and tags A-0118, A-0121–A-0123: written/verbal grievances, response policy, written decision and direct state-agency access. Relevant passages only; not a rule for every facility.