Phone: (508) 957-9497
Hours: 8:00 am – 4:30 pm, Monday – Friday
Patient advocates look into and help resolve patient and family complaints. Advocates can also answer your questions about confidentiality and assist you in getting information about your care.
Patients will be treated with respect, dignity, and courtesy at all times, especially when voicing a complaint, as this is viewed as an opportunity for improvement. Every patient has the right to file a complaint with any hospital employee. Patients are free to voice complaints, concerns, and/or recommendations without coercion, discrimination, reprisal, or unreasonable interruption of care, treatment, and services.
If you are voicing a complaint or concern while you are still in the hospital, we expect our employees to work with their departmental manager to address your complaint or concern in a timely and reasonable manner. Depending on the nature of your complaint or concern, you can also discuss it directly with:
- Your physician
- Your nurse or other health care providers
- An appropriate manager (such as nursing, food services, environmental services, etc.)
If you feel your complaints have not been satisfactorily resolved, you can contact our Patient Relations Department at (508) 957-9497, Monday through Friday, during normal business hours.
If you feel your complaint or concern was not resolved while you were in the hospital or you have an issue to bring forward after you have been discharged, you can contact our Patient Relations Department at (508) 957-9497 or write to Patient Safety and Relations Specialist, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, 1 Hospital Road, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.
Patients may also file a complaint with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and/or the Joint Commission directly, regardless of whether he or she has first used the internal complaint process, as noted above. These agencies may be contacted in writing or by telephone at:
- The Massachusetts Department of Public Health Division of Health Care – Quality Advocacy Office 99 Chauncey Street, 2nd Floor Boston, MA, 02111 (617) 753-8150 or (800) 462-5540
- Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine 200 Harvard Mill Square, Suite 330 Wakefield, MA 01880 (781) 876-8200
- The Joint Commission (800) 994-6610
