(a) Access to facilities and residents.  Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman (Office) procedures for access to long-term care facilities and facility residents are set in Sections 1-829-F, 1-1902, 1-1919, and 1-2213-D, Title 63 of the Oklahoma State Statutes.  A state or local ombudsman, as that term is defined by Aging Services Division of the Department of Human Services, is authorized to enter any home licensed pursuant to the Oklahoma Nursing Home Care Act, the Oklahoma Residential Care Act, and the Continuum of Care and Assisted Living Act to communicate privately and without unreasonable restriction with any resident who consents to the communication, to seek consent to communicate, and to observe all areas of the facility that directly pertain to the care of the resident, without infringing upon the privacy of other residents without their consent.

• (1) Area ombudsman staff and trained, certified ombudsman volunteers have the same right of access to licensed long-term care facilities and residents as state ombudsman staff.
• (2) Any ombudsman staff or volunteer asked to leave the premises of any licensed facility for any reason does so, and immediately reports the incident to the State  Ombudsman Office.

(b) Access to resident's records.   

The state long-term care ombudsman and staff representatives of the Office have access to:

• (1) review the medical and social records of a resident if:
  • (A) the representative of the Office has the permission of the resident, or the legal representative of the resident; or
  • (B) the resident is unable to consent to the review and has no legal representative and the representative of the Office obtains the approval of the state long-term care ombudsman;
• (2) the records as is necessary to investigate a complaint if:
  • (A) a legal guardian of the resident refuses to give the permission;
  • (B) a representative of the Office has reasonable cause to believe that the guardian is not acting in the best interests of the resident; and
  • (C) the representative obtains the approval of the state long-term care ombudsman;
• (3) the administrative records, policies, and documents, of long-term care facilities, to which the residents or the general public have access; and
• (4) copies of all licensing and certification records maintained by the Oklahoma State Department of Health or any other agency of Oklahoma with respect to long-term care facilities.  Ombudsman volunteers do not have access to the medical record or social record of a resident.  The volunteer ombudsman must refer problems requiring review of records to the ombudsman supervisor.