Fraser Health region received most complaints: Vancouver Island highest per capita
By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun
The Fraser Health region received the most patient complaints in the province, according to the first report of a new agency set up to improve accountability and transparency in the health care system.
But on a per-capita basis, Vancouver Island outstripped Fraser Health, receiving 2.16 complaints per 1,000 population, compared to 1.37 for Fraser Health, said Dr. Nigel Murray, CEO of the Fraser Health region.
Dr. Jack Critchley, chair of the patient care quality review boards for Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health and the Provincial Health Services Agency, said communication is at the crux of most complaints.
Murray cited the region's demographics as one of the reasons for the high number of complaints there.
With 1.6 million people, the region has the biggest, fastest growing population in the province and a large component of immigrants and ethnic diversity, making communication between patients and health providers a challenge at times.
The patient complaints process was established by the provincial government in 2008. Because this year's report is the first, no comparisons can be made with figures from previous years.
Across B.C., patients or their representatives voiced 7,523 complaints and queries to patient care quality offices in the six health authorities in 2009-10.
Of that number, 309 were referred on to other organizations like the College of Registered Nurses or the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Another 1,390 were mere questions, not complaints.
That left 5,824 actual complaints and of those, 2,157 related to health care delivered in the Fraser Region.
The Vancouver Island region received 1,619; Vancouver Coastal Health had 854; Interior Health got 828; Northern Health 188; and the Provincial Health Services Agency 178.
Murray defended his region's health providers and institutions in an interview Tuesday.
On a per-capita basis, the VCH rate was .77 per 1,000, Interior was 1.13 and Northern Health was .67. PHSA, which includes hospitals like B.C. Women's and Children's, serves the province at large so no comparison can be made.
He said another reason for his region's higher number is that it does a stellar job of making patients, residents of care facilities and other health care clients aware of the complaint process. Pamphlets are placed in visible locations in 10 hospitals and other sites and feedback is "actively solicited."
"Fraser Health does not have the lion's share of complaints," said Murray. "Quality is our No. 1 strategic imperative, our highest priority." With respect to patient satisfaction, he said, internal surveys indicate about nine out of 10 patients are satisfied with their care.
Each region has a patient care quality office and when the complaints are not resolved at that level, they are referred to a review board. But 99 per cent of complaints were resolved at the health authority level so only 65 complaints proceeded to the review board.
Critchley said most complaints are not critical enough to have serious outcomes.
"But poor communication seems to be involved in the majority of complaints. Patients want to be treated kindly and politely, not rudely. They want to feel respected. They want to know they have been listened to.
"Most complaints are from people who feel their concerns have not been taken seriously, that they haven't been given the attention their concerns deserved. But I think most health providers in the system are working very hard and doing a very good job and most people in B.C. would tell you they are very happy with the care. Yet I wouldn't be doing this job if I didn't think there was something to offer in terms of improving the system."
Some of the complaints about care in the Fraser region: A mental health patient who believed he/she was not treated with respect and dignity in an emergency department; a patient who got pressure sores when transferred to another facility; staff members not wearing identification; and visiting hours not being adhered to, resulting in too much noise.
The annual report is available online at www.patientcarequalityreviewboard.ca
