Reporting Your Concerns

At Abbeville Area Medical Center and our Physician Network practices, we are continuously working to improve our service to patients. An important part of this service is the way you feel you are treated by our staff members, volunteers and physicians. It is important that we hear about any concerns while you are in the hospital, physician clinics, or under care by our home health agency, Health Related Home Care. Please do not feel uncomfortable raising these concerns. We are committed to making sure that you receive compassionate, quality care. If there is anything we can do to improve the services we are providing, please talk with our staff.
For many concerns, it’s usually best to first speak with the people caring for you. This would probably be your nurse, hospital case manager, or office staff. If you don’t feel that they are helping you, please ask to speak to the supervisor, manager or director. If you still are unsatisfied with the resolve to your concern, you may file a grievance with the hospital. The hospital will review, investigate and resolve the grievance in a reasonable amount of time-generally 10 days from the time it is received. The hospital will respond to you in writing, in an easy to understand manner. The letter should tell you the steps that have been taken on your behalf to investigate the grievance, the results, and a contact person. You, or the hospital personnel, may also want to meet in person to talk about what happened.

AAMC contact person for grievances:
Mary Margaret Jackson, 864-366-3279
PO Box 887
Abbeville, SC 29620

A grievance is considered closed when you are satisfied with the actions taken by the hospital. There may be times, however, when the hospital feels it has taken reasonable steps to address your concern, but you are still unsatisfied. That’s when you may consider filing your concern with a hospital oversight organization-the next step below.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) licenses and certifies South Carolina hospitals. This means that the hospitals must meet certain rules and regulations to care for patients and receive payment. One function of DHEC is to investigate complaints about any facility they license.