FEATURE
“ The issue is ensuring that investigations can be as proportionate to and efficient as the underlying merit of the complaint warrants "
Committee takes no action in 65 % of cases. These numbers suggests opportunities exist for greater efficiency without sacrificing either fairness or effectiveness.“ Clearly, there is an opportunity to manage lower risk complaints differently in order to provide a better experience for complainants and physicians,” she said. To this end, the College will introduce several important changes to its complaints process. For example, we will have one of our Public Advisors on staff contact the complainant within two business days of receipt of the complaint. During the phone call, the Advisor will seek to fully understand the nature of the complaint and the complainant’ s expectations and will explain the process, answer any questions and ensure the complainant feels heard. In many cases, such a conversation may lead to a resolution of the issue or concern without need for further action.
We will also introduce a Medical Complaints Director and initiate an alternative dispute resolution process to assist in resolving matters to the mutual satisfaction of the complainant and the physician.
The Medical Complaints Director will review complaints and stream them towards resolution or investigation using defined criteria. In appropriate cases, and if both physician and complainant agree, they will be able to participate in the alternative dispute resolution process with a goal of achieving an early and mutually satisfactory resolution. This should enable the College’ s investigative resources to be directed towards more serious matters. If, for any reason, the alternative dispute resolution process does not resolve a matter, an investigation will be completed. The College’ s handling of complaints was addressed by the Hon. Justice Stephen Goudge in his 2016 report Streamlining the Physician Complaints Process In Ontario. From an efficiency perspective,“ the issue is ensuring that investigations can be as proportionate to and efficient as the underlying merit of the complaint warrants,” he wrote.
By refocusing on early resolution, where possible and appropriate, we should also be able to offer faster service, increase both complainant and physician satisfaction, and reduce overall time to resolution.
We are looking closely at the experience of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. Alberta’ s legislation provides its College ' s Complaints Director with the ability to dismiss a complaint without investigating it – 40 % of complaints received in Alberta ultimately do not require an investigation. In Ontario, the legislation requires that all complaints be investigated, or be managed through an an alternative dispute resolution process. Although the legislation in the two provinces have important differences, we believe that lessons can be learned about Alberta’ s methods and tools that will help us resolve complaints more quickly within our own existing legislative and regulatory framework.
We are also putting a renewed emphasis on improving our communication with participants throughout the complaints process, making sure that they understand the process, the timelines associated with it and the resources available to them. In some cases, delays cannot be avoided. And this means that the College’ s investigators – in the face of longer processes – must ensure that all participants are aware of why the process is taking an extended amount of time, thereby reducing the frustration caused by longer investigative processes.“ We need to be respectful,” said Dr. Whitmore.“ There is nothing more central to our mandate than the way we support patients when they have concerns. And it is important that we work respectfully with physicians through that process. In the end, we all have a common goal – ensuring that the people of Ontario are receiving high quality, safe patient care.” MD
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DIALOGUE ISSUE 3, 2018