Nursing facilities have a federal requirement to report allegations of mistreatment, neglect, or verbal, mental, sexual, and physical abuse, including injuries of unknown source, and misappropriation of patient property. 

The time frames of these reports differ from occurrence reporting and are determined based on the injury of the victim. For serious bodily injury, the time limit is 2 hours. Serious Bodily Injury – 2 Hour Limit: If the events that cause the reasonable suspicion result in serious bodily injury to a resident, the covered individual shall report the suspicion immediately, but not later than 2 hours after forming the suspicion.

All other reports must be submitted within 24 hours through the COHFI system. When an event meets both occurrence and federal reporting criteria, the licensed entity must report according to the more stringent timeline.

The department understands that federal reporting requirements (also known as Facility Report Incidents or FRIs) overlap with but differ slightly from state reporting requirements (Occurrences). In the COHFI system, nursing facilities no longer need to attest that events meet occurrence elements in order to report a FRI. When applicable, please indicate in the narrative section of the initial report if the report is being submitted in accordance with state and/or federal reporting requirements.

When reporting FRIs, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires specific information from nursing facilities. When reporting an allegation of Abuse (physical, verbal, or sexual), Neglect, or Misappropriation of Property, please include the information below in the Initial Report.

• Incident Type (this will be indicated by the selection of the initial report type)

• Date and Time of incident 

  • The initial report will prompt for a date/time of the incident as well as a date/time that the first facility staff member became aware of the incident

• Allegation Details

  • Provide a brief description of the specific allegation, including but not limited to:

    • Who made the allegation

    • What was reported, alleged or witnessed

    • Where the incident occurred

    • Current location of the alleged victim (resident)

• Victim and Assailant Information

  • The final report will prompt for detailed information of the involved victim and alleged assailant. In the initial report, please also provide the following information if known:

    • The alleged victim's full name, date of birth and brief synopsis of the resident's psychical and cognitive status

    • If an alleged assailant is identified, please specify if the alleged assailant is another resident, a staff member or other. If known, provide the alleged assailant's full name, date of birth and brief synopsis of psychical and cognitive status (if resident) or the full name and position/title (if staff)

• Alleged Outcome to Victim

  • Describe the alleged physical harm, pain or mental anguish

  • Describe any type of injury such as bruising, redness, scratches, lacerations, puncture wounds, fractures, breaks, bleeding, etc.

  • Describe any changes to the alleged victim's baseline behavior such as crying, expression or non-verbal indications of fear such as cowering, anger, withdrawal, difficulty sleeping, etc.