Tennessee Facility or system Complaint Route

Authority and scope

Check the facility type and concern

HFC regulates hospitals, surgical treatment centers, nursing homes, assisted-care living, homes for the aged, adult care homes, home health, hospice and specified outpatient diagnostic/treatment centers. TDMHSAS separately licenses mental-health and alcohol/drug treatment programs, including residential, outpatient and opioid-treatment categories, and personal-support services. Match the facility’s actual license; one agency does not cover every setting.

Supporting guidance: HFC facility license categories ↗TDMHSAS Office of Licensure ↗

Match the route to the facility type

Hospitals, surgery and nursing homes

HFC-regulated facility types.

Open this official route ↗

Assisted-care living, adult care and homes for aged

HFC intake for these licensed residential settings.

Open this official route ↗

Home health and hospice

HFC facility complaint route.

Open this official route ↗

Mental-health, substance-use and personal-support programs

Separate TDMHSAS Office of Licensure: phone, email or fax; ask about privacy/authorization requirements.

Open this official route ↗

Submission

How the official source says to file

For HFC, use the Public Records and Complaints portal linked from its complaint page or call 877-287-0010. The current page also accepts mail and fax. Mail to HFC Complaint Intake, Andrew Jackson State Building, 502 Deaderick Street, 9th Floor, Nashville, TN 37243; the form lists fax 615-253-4356.
Complete applicable form items: facility/address, resident and birth date, your relationship, event dates/times, staff/witness names, ongoing concerns and prior reports. Attach relevant copies or additional pages. Keep your own packet. For an anonymous HFC report, the form instructs you to skip complainant contact details.
For TDMHSAS-licensed mental-health/substance-use or personal-support services, call 866-797-9470, email LicensureInv.Fax@tn.gov, or fax 615-401-7644. Describe the program, dates, care concerns and evidence; ask about records authorization for another service recipient.

Supporting guidance: HFC facility complaints ↗HFC complaint form ↗TDMHSAS Office of Licensure ↗

Limits

What this route may not provide

These routes concern facility licensing and compliance. Individual clinician complaints are separate. HFC may impose deficiencies or penalties; neither checked route establishes a general process for recovering damages or resolving ordinary bills. Ask the appropriate intake office about concerns outside its authority.

Supporting guidance: HFC facility complaints ↗

Anonymity

Do not guess about confidentiality

HFC states that complainant identity is kept confidential even when basic complaint information must be released. Anonymous HFC reports cannot receive follow-up or results. TDMHSAS anonymity, subject disclosure and patient-record release requirements were not established; ask its Office of Licensure directly.

Supporting guidance: HFC facility complaints ↗HFC complaint form ↗

Complaint timing

Priority depends on seriousness; no public filing deadline established

A filing deadline was not established for either authority; ask promptly. HFC assigns severity-based investigation priority. Provider incident-reporting requirements and a patient’s complaint deadline are different.

Supporting guidance: HFC facility complaints ↗

Process

What may happen after filing

HFC acknowledges identified complaints, sends them to a regional office, may seek details and sends an outcome letter. TDMHSAS describes unannounced inspections, follow-ups and investigations of licensed or unlicensed service providers.

Supporting guidance: HFC facility complaints ↗TDMHSAS Office of Licensure ↗

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.

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.