Overview
NSW Health is committed to improving the overall quality
of health care. One of the challenges in this objective is
to identify and promote strategies and practices that enhance
services provided to the community and engender community
trust in those who administer and provide those services.
Complaints and compliments provide unique information about
the quality of health care from the perspective of consumers
and their carers. The challenge for health care services is
collect better information about consumers' views to ensure
the safe delivery of care.
Policy Directive
In 2006, NSW Health released the Complaint
Management Policy. The policy was developed to provide a
consistent approach to frontline complaints handling.
The policy directive was developed around eight key elements:
- Organisational commitment
- Accessible complaint processes for consumers
- Timely and sensitive management of complaints
- Appropriate assessment of complaints
- Just and fair treatment to all involved
- Complaint information management
- Evaluation and review
Complaint management guidelines
In December 2006, the Complaint
Management Guidelines were released to provide health workers
with an operational framework for dealing with complaints. The
guidelines aim to ensure that identified risks arising from
complaints are managed appropriately, that complainants’
issues are addressed satisfactorily, that effective action is
taken to improve care for all patients, and that health service
staff are supported.
Turning wrongs into rights
The Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Heath Care
(the Council) sponsored the Turning Wrongs into Rights: learning
from consumer reported incidents project to improve the way
health care services management complaints, particularly the
link to quality improvement.
The project was completed in June 2004 and produced the Better
Practice Guidelines on Complaints Management for Health Care
Services and a Complaints Management Handbook for health care
services. Both resources were endorsed by the by the Health
Ministers Conference in July 2004 and informed the development
of the NSW policy directive and guidelines.
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