Policy

The agency will provide service recipients and their family members and/or guardians with an opportunity to present grievances and to appeal management decisions through a dispute resolution/ grievance procedure. The agency attempts to resolve all grievances, including Title VI matters, promptly under provisions of this policy.  Filing a grievance under this policy does not alter or endanger the recipient’s continued service by the agency.

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A grievance is defined as an allegation of a violation of Agency policy/procedures or statutes.

A complaint is any disagreement with Agency practices or decisions that are not related to policy/procedures and would follow the normal chain of command to resolve issues informally.

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The grievant has the right to an internal or personal advocate during the proceedings. 

PROCEDURES FOR GRIEVANCES

• Step One.  Service recipient puts his or her grievance in writing and submits to the Corporate Compliance Officer (CCO). Assistance in writing the grievance may be given to the recipients if requested. The written grievance must be signed by the service recipient. The Agency will not accept anonymous grievances. The CCO will determine if the issue is a complaint versus a grievance. If a determination is made that it is a complaint, the service recipient is referred to the complaint policy.

• Step Two.  The CCO will attempt to resolve the issue. The CCO has 10 business days to respond in writing to the service recipient. If the CCO’s resolution does not satisfactorily resolve the issue, the decision can be appealed in writing to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  The CEO must receive the appeal within 10 business days of the CCO’s decision. The CEO has 10 business days to respond in writing. 

• Step Three.  If the grievant is dissatisfied with the CEO’s decision a final appeal may be made to the Service Recipient Rights Committee by submitting the written grievance to the Committee Chair within 10 business days of the CEO’s decision, along with a consent to release relevant information to this committee.  The Committee will hear the issue at the next regularly scheduled meeting. The Committee will respond to the recipient in writing. 

• Final decisions on grievances are not precedent setting or binding on future grievance resolutions unless they are officially stated as Agency policy.

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The Agency will educate recipients and all personnel about this policy and procedure.

The Agency will not allow retaliation against any individual who files a grievance.
A grievance log shall be kept that summarizes the date of the grievance, the grievance, and outcomes. The log will be used for performance improvement purposes.  

 

Contact Information

Please contact us by phone at 410-292-0130 or by mail at PO Box 65125, Baltimore, MD 21209-0111.