Timely Cooperation from Providers During MUI Investigations

Providers and Summit DD MUI Staff are partners in the MUI process. Timely cooperation and communication are important to the MUI investigative process and ensuring health and welfare. Delays in providing IAs with requested documentation, staff contact info, or other important details can slow the process and keep us from supporting the person served through the MUI process. Below are helpful reminders to ensure a smooth and timely MUI process.

Timely Cooperation from Providers During MUI Investigations

Working together, we can ensure a smooth and timely MUI investigation for those we serve.

• IAs only have 30 business days to investigate, obtain a prevention plan from the support team, author a final report, and to close the case with the state.
• By rule, IAs are allowed to request a provider to make staff available for interviews; provide relevant personnel file documentation; provide requested service or medical documentation for the person served; answer general case-related questions; etc.
• IAs should respond back to your correspondence no more than one business day after it was sent.
• Best practice timeframes for responses from providers is 1-2 business days for documentation that should already exist, providing staff contact info, or providing known answers to questions posed. IA requests for documentation or information that needs created/collected, should take no more than 3-5 business days.

We certainly understand that the staffing crisis in Ohio has agencies spread pretty thin. In some cases, this has caused our MUI contacts to have to work double-duty between administrative responsibilities and direct care, which further limits their availability to assist with MUI investigations. If you anticipate a staffing crisis will cause delays to be able to respond to requests from the IAs, it is crucial for providers to let us know. Please inform the IA of any unintentional delays in providing the requested info and include an estimated timeframe they can expect to receive the information. (Please be sure to communicate these issues directly to the IA assigned to the MUI in question.)

Questions or concerns?

If you would like to discuss general concerns with communication/cooperation or ways that Summit DD may be able to improve this on our end, please reach out to MUI Senior Manager Wayne Hershey at whershey@summitdd.org. Thanks!