Complaints numbers and actions taken
Listening to and acting on feedback from our patients, their families and their carers about our health services is one of the most important aspects of delivering high quality care.
Complaints about provision of health care services can be made by anyone who has contact with our services. People who complain often have some basic expectations, they want to:
- be heard and understood
- be respected
- be taken seriously
- be given support or assistance if required
- have their concerns dealt with effectively and efficiently
- be informed of the process, progress, findings and outcome
- have appropriate action taken as a result of their complaint.
Communication issues underpin most complaints we receive, and most people who submit a complaint are simply looking for an explanation or apology. Another common motivation behind complaints is to prevent the same thing happening to others. This is why acknowledging complaints promptly and letting people know what's been done to prevent it happening again is so important.
The complaint management process is not intended to apportion blame but strives to resolve the complaint, if possible, and identify any aspects of service delivery which require change to effect improvement.
Measuring complaint numbers and actions taken
The Health and Disability Services Complaints Act 1995 and Regulations 2010 legislate for the annual provision of information relating to complaints received by the health service provider, and action taken, to the Health and Disability Services Complaints Office.
The key issues associated with a complaint about our health service are determined by NMHS staff in discussion with the person making the complaint. Identifying the issues in the complaint provides for effective resolution and allows all parties to understand the issues raised. Each complaint received must have at least one complaint issue identified, with the possibility for multiple issues to be identified in one complaint. Similarly, each complaint will have at least one resolution achieved, with the possibility of multiple resolutions being achieved for one complaint.
Complaint issues
How do we measure up
The graph below shows the combined ‘top five’ categories of complaint issues for the NMHS hospitals:
- Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Hospital Care Group
- King Edward Memorial Hospital (Women and Newborn Health Service)
- Graylands Hospital (plus Mental Health and Dental Health)
Chart: NMHS total ‘top five’ categories of complaint issues by quarter 2019/2020.
*Note one complaint may be related to more than one issue, so the count of issues may be greater than the number of complaints.
What the figures mean
The five most common categories of complaint issues were ‘Access’, ‘Communication’, ‘Quality of clinical care’, ‘Rights, respect and dignity’, and ‘Corporate services’. Within each of these categories, the most common causes of complaint were:
‘Access’
- Long waiting times to get outpatient clinic appointment
- Clinic running late – patients having to wait for an hour or more for their booked appointment
- Reduction in services due to COVID-19
‘Communication’
- Patient or carer concerns not being listened to or considered
- Staff members giving conflicting or confusing information about in-hospital treatment or outpatient appointments
- Abrupt or rude manner from staff
‘Corporate Services’
- Patients and family unhappy about limited visitor access during COVID-19
- Personal details not updated in administrative system
- Appointment letter sent to wrong address
‘Quality of Clinical care’
- Patient not receiving adequate pain relief, or finding a procedure to be painful
- Patient being discharged too soon
- No plans in place for care after discharge from hospital
‘Rights, Respect and Dignity’
- Staff not taking patient or carer concerns seriously
- Staff seemed dismissive or not interested in helping patient or carer
- Inconsiderate treatment of patient
- Lack of compassion towards distressed patient or carer
Complaint resolutions
How do we measure up
The graph below shows the combined ‘top five’ resolutions to complaints for the NMHS hospitals:
- Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Hospital Care Group
- King Edward Memorial Hospital (Women and Newborn Health Service)
- Graylands Hospital (plus Mental Health and Dental Health)
Chart: NMHS total ‘top five’ resolutions to complaints by quarter 2019/2020.
*Note one complaint may be related to more than one issue, so the count of issues may be greater than the number of complaints.
What the figures mean
The most common resolution of complaints was Apology provided, Explanation provided and Concern registered.