Improving the healthcare complaints experience
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission), the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the National Boards have been working together to explore whether there are opportunities to improve the consumer experience of making a health complaint in Australia.
Their joint project found that the complexity of complaints process is experienced for both consumers and healthcare providers and a huge weight of responsibility sits on them to understand how the system works. Consumers are also experiencing barriers, whether it be social, economic or cultural that are affecting their ability to make a complaint and want a system that is focused on their needs rather than administrative processes.
To improve experiences for those going through a complaint process, the Commission and Ahpra have:
- updated their websites to clarify the process of making a complaint
- developed three animations to give clear information to the public about how and where to make a health complaint
- developed a ‘Tips for consumers when making a complaint’ webpage and fact sheet
- developed Healthcare complaints - where to make a complaint (downloadable fact sheet) , and
- created a complaints checklist for practitioners to help effectively handle feedback and complaints from their patients or clients.
AMA(SA) encourages members to provide feedback about the changes to admin@amasa.org.au.