How to File an Ohio Nursing Home Complaint

If Someone Is in Immediate Danger

If a nursing home resident in Ohio is in immediate danger, call 911. Do not wait on a complaint form.

After the person is safe, report the facility to the Ohio Department of Health and, if you want an advocate involved, the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Those reports are separate from a civil injury claim.

How to File an Ohio Nursing Home Complaint

The Ohio Department of Health, Bureau of Survey and Certification, receives complaints about nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and nursing facilities. The department says the purpose of that process is to protect residents from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and inadequate care or supervision. The current instructions are on the Ohio Department of Health complaints page.

Medicare- and Medicaid-certified homes are also subject to federal rules, including the right to be free from abuse, neglect, and exploitation in 42 CFR 483.12.

Start with the online form

The department’s preferred method is the online complaint form. Use it when you can.

If you cannot open the form, or you need to send documents, photos, or video, email HCComplaints@odh.ohio.gov.

Call 1-800-342-0553 only if you cannot use the internet or email. The department says a phone complaint is not encouraged, because these reports usually depend on details that are clearer in writing. That number is the Complaint Unit line for nursing homes and other facilities the department licenses or certifies. The same page lists a separate home-health hotline. That line is not the nursing home number.

What to include

The department says a complaint without enough detail can be closed without an investigation. Include:

• Your name, address, and phone number, unless you want to remain anonymous.
• The facility’s name and address.
• The resident’s name, and whether the resident is still in the facility.
• The date and time, or how often the problem happens.
• The names of residents, staff, and witnesses involved.
• What happened, why you think it happened, and whether it looks isolated or ongoing.
• Whether you already raised it with the facility or another agency, and what they did.

Filing without your name

You may file anonymously by leaving your name and address off the form. If you do, the department cannot call you for missing facts and will not send you the result.

A named complaint is still held in confidence. Except for limited judicial and enforcement purposes, the department says it cannot release your identity, the resident’s identity, or information that would tend to identify either of you, without consent.

Ohio law also bars a home or its employees from retaliating against a person who reports an alleged violation of residents’ rights to the Department of Health. That protection is in Ohio Revised Code 3721.17.

What the department does not investigate

The complaints page says the Bureau does not handle billing, reimbursement, guardianship, power of attorney, or a complaint about a specific practitioner’s professional license. Those are referred elsewhere.

It also does not investigate a complaint about an incident that is more than one year old, because certified and licensed facilities are inspected on a routine cycle. That one-year cutoff is a survey rule. It is not the deadline for a lawsuit. A civil claim can already be closed, or still be open, on a different clock. A lawyer has to sort out which one applies.

Allegations of abuse, neglect, misappropriation, or exploitation by a person who works in a nursing home can also be reviewed by the department’s Abuse, Neglect, Misappropriation, and Exploitation program under Ohio Revised Code 3721.21 to 3721.26. The program lists (614) 752-8805 and says a complaint against a facility or an employee can be filed there or through the same complaints page. See the Abuse, Neglect, Misappropriation, and Exploitation program.

What Happens After You File in Ohio

Investigations are unannounced. Surveyors look at the complaint against federal requirements and Ohio law, using observations, interviews, and record review. The department says the timing, scope, and length are up to the Bureau, except when immediate jeopardy may be present and ongoing or a higher level of actual harm may be present. Those complaints are prioritized.

For Medicare and Medicaid nursing home complaints, CMS sets maximum times for the state survey agency to start an on-site survey. In State Operations Manual Chapter 5, Revision 243 (June 12, 2026), those maximums are:

• Immediate jeopardy: within 3 business days of the initial report.
• Non-immediate-jeopardy, high priority: an annual average of 15 business days, not to exceed 18 business days.
• Medium priority: within 45 calendar days.
• Low priority: tracked for the next on-site survey, or a new complaint survey.

Those are federal maximums. CMS says the state may investigate sooner. They are not a promise that Ohio will finish every complaint, or send a result, on that schedule.

Unless you filed anonymously, you should receive two letters: an acknowledgement with a tracking number, then a letter with the outcome when the investigation is finished.

If surveyors find the facility failed to meet a requirement, they cite a deficiency. Remedies can include a plan of correction, civil money penalties, denial of payment for new admissions, and, in serious cases, action against the license or the Medicare or Medicaid agreement. A deficiency does not pay the resident's medical bills or award damages to the family.

Inspection results for certified homes are posted on Medicare Care Compare.

The Long-Term Care Ombudsman

The Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, in the Ohio Department of Aging, advocates for people in nursing homes, assisted living, and other long-term care settings. Ombudsmen help resolve complaints about services and explain rights. They do not license or police facilities. The program home page is the Ohio Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

Call 1-800-282-1206 or email OhioOmbudsman@age.ohio.gov. Regional programs cover all 88 counties. The contact an ombudsman page routes a message to the regional program and says you should hear back in one to two business days.

The Department of Aging tells people to report suspected abuse in a nursing home or assisted living facility to the ombudsman or to the Department of Health. That direction is on the report elder abuse page.

Adult Protective Services and Assisted Living

County departments of job and family services investigate abuse, neglect, and exploitation of adults age 60 and older. The statewide line is 1-855-644-6277 (855-OHIO-APS), any time, and reports can be filed at aps.jfs.ohio.gov.

For harm inside a licensed nursing home, the Department of Aging points families to the Department of Health and the ombudsman, not only to Adult Protective Services. The Ohio Adult Protective Services guide explains the county process.

Ohio assisted living is licensed as a residential care facility. Complaints still go to the Department of Health, but the oversight is not the same as a Medicare-certified nursing home. Use the Ohio assisted living complaint guide for that process.

If You Are Considering a Civil Injury Claim

A complaint to the state can trigger an inspection. It does not file a lawsuit, and it does not compensate the resident for medical bills, pain, or a death. Those are separate.

Ohio Revised Code 3721.13 lists residents' rights. They include a safe and clean living environment; freedom from physical, verbal, mental, and emotional abuse; adequate and appropriate medical treatment and nursing care; freedom from financial exploitation; and the right to voice a grievance without reprisal. An attempted waiver of those rights is void. The full list is in Ohio Revised Code 3721.13.

Ohio Revised Code 3721.17 gives a resident whose rights under sections 3721.10 to 3721.17 are violated a cause of action against the person or home that committed the violation. Compensatory damages require proof, by a preponderance of the evidence, that a negligent act or omission caused the resident's injury, death, or loss. The statute also allows injunctive relief. Nothing in that section guarantees a recovery.

Deadlines are short, and they are not all the same.

Many claims that arise from medical care, or from skilled nursing or personal care under a plan of care, in a nursing home are medical claims under Ohio Revised Code 2305.113. That section says an action on a medical claim shall be commenced within one year after the cause of action accrued. A written notice given before that year ends can allow the action to be commenced within 180 days after the notice is given. A medical claim generally may not be commenced more than four years after the act or omission. Read Ohio Revised Code 2305.113.

An action for bodily injury that is not a medical claim is often brought under Ohio Revised Code 2305.10, which generally requires the action within two years after the cause of action accrues. See Ohio Revised Code 2305.10.

A wrongful-death action generally must be commenced within two years after the decedent's death under Ohio Revised Code 2125.02(F)(1). See Ohio Revised Code 2125.02.

Which statute applies depends on the facts, including when the injury was or should have been discovered. This page is general information. It is not a determination of the deadline in any particular case. A longer explanation of pleading an Ohio nursing home injury claim is on the Ohio nursing home lawsuits page.

The form on this page asks for a consult about an injury or neglect claim. It does not submit your complaint to the Ohio Department of Health.

Signs That May Point to Abuse or Neglect

Warning signs are not proof. They are reasons to ask questions, document what you see, and report if you are concerned:

• Unexplained bruises, cuts, fractures, burns, or injuries in different stages of healing.
• Fear or withdrawal around particular staff.
• Poor hygiene, sudden weight loss, dehydration, or an untreated bedsore.
• Untreated infections or a sudden change in health that staff cannot explain.
• Missing money, missing belongings, or unexplained changes to financial documents.

Photograph what you can, write down dates and names, and keep copies of records you are allowed to have. Do not delay a 911 call or a report in order to build a file.