The first annual Patient Care Quality Review Board report was released last week by Health Minister Falcon. Click here for a full copy of the report.
As part of the May 2008 Patient Care Quality Review Board Act, health authorities were required to establish an independent central office to receive and respond to patient complaints. This report captures the results of that process and makes a number of references and recommendations related to home, community and acute care services across the province.
The total volume of complaints and inquiries received by the Board was over 7,500 between April 2009 and March 2010. The most common concern was attitude and conduct of staff in acute acre (1,044) followed by acute care deficiencies (580) and lack of communication while in acute care (319). The total number of complaints about home and community care ranked ninth on the list (146). The only region where home and community care complaints and inquiries made the top ten list of concerns was IHA (Deficiencies was 3rd and attitude/conduct was ranked 9th).
By far, the most common subject of all complaints reviewed by the Board (not all complaints are reviewed) was quality of acute care services (21), followed by attitude/conduct of acute care staff (7), accessibility of home and community care (7), quality of home and community care (7) and quality of ambulatory care (6). A full chart is on page 9. Some the reviewed complaints include:
- Complaint regarding residential care rate in IHA (page 17)
- Complaint regarding IHA home support services (page 18)
- Complaint about application of first available bed policy at VCHA (page 19)
- Complaint regarding care provided by some community health workers in VIHA (page 23)
All complaints are accompanied by formal recommendation to health authority for action.
