Keywords
Citation
(2003), "Australia. New project to ensure consumer complaints are linked to quality improvement", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 16 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2003.06216gab.010
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited
Australia. New project to ensure consumer complaints are linked to quality improvement
Australia
New project to ensure consumer complaints are linked to quality improvement
Keywords: Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care, Health-Care Complaints Commission, Quality improvement, Consumer complaints, Complaints management, Australia
The Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care is sponsoring a project to ensure that consumer complaints to health-care services are linked to quality improvement programs. The project will undertake research on Australian health-care services with good practices in complaints management, develop Interim Better Practice Guidelines on Complaints Management in health care and propose recommendations for implementation. Professor Bruce Barraclough, the Council's Chair, said that the project reflects the Council's commitment to ensuring that consumer complaints are acknowledged as an important source of information about adverse events and how they might be prevented.
The Health Care Complaints Commission (NSW) has been engaged by the Council to carry out the project on behalf of the Australia and New Zealand Council of Health Complaints Commissioners, working in partnership with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Health Issues Centre. Amanda Adrian, NSW Health Care Complaints Commissioner, said:
"Consumer complaints provide important information about standards of care in health-care services, but the focus is usually on the individuals directly involved. The lessons to be learned are often ignored. Complaints, or "consumer-reported incidents" should be treated as another partof critical incident reporting andreview."
The project was to be conductedbetween April and December 2003, with draft Interim Guidelines and recommendations for implementation, due out in September.