I was fairly busy last week, attending some classes at the Women’s Network in my community. Last week, I learned about “building a website” and “branding & marketing”. This week we will focus on “building e-commerce” I am learning great information and tips. For example I had no idea that there are websites out there for “fake news”. The ONION website is one of them. Another that is Canadian Fake news is the Beaverton. Also if you want to see if the news or information is legit or not, you can check on Snopes.com.
As part of my volunteer activity as a PFA, Patient Family Advisor, I get invited to different seminars. Last week, the hospital had organized a speaker, who was an Executive Director of Ombudsman.
He explained that the Ombudsman is there to improve quality or shine a light on a specific problem and makes sure the system fixes it. He stressed they are not the solutioners. The Patient Ombudsman has a mandate set out by Excellent Care for All Act in 2010.
The Patient Ombudsman does the following:
- Receive and resolve complaints
- Help patients and caregivers navigate
- Conduct Investigations
- Make Recommendations for system change
- Serve as an “office of last resort”
- Acts as a neutral and impartial third body
- Champion for fairness (not a patient advocate; they advocate for fairness)
They oversee
- 141 Public Hospitals
- 14 LHIN (Local Health Integration Network formerly the Community Care Access Centres or CCAC) home and community services
- 630 long term care homes
He also shared who is getting complained about…
- Hospital =66%
- LHIN-12%
- Long term care-9%
- Other health services-13%
He also talked about a “fairness triangle” which I depicted above.
- Substantive–Which is what decisions were made in the complaint?
- Procedural-What was the process?
- Relational-How were people treated?
Apparently the report for 2017/2018 was called Fairness. In that report, they identified 2301 complaints which was a 16% increase from Year 1. The Year 1 report was called Fearless. This is because they felt it isn’t easy to complain. Really? Well maybe. Apparently complaints are nuggets of insight. The thought is more complaints, mean better decisions. Next report is to come out sometime this month. They had 2412 complaints (only a 5% increase from Year 2)
Anyway it was a good presentation and helped explain the Patient Ombudsman role. They are an office of last resort because if you have a complaint you should try to address it directly. For example, with Dr. Dick, I went to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. I feel like my complaint was addressed and wouldn’t take that to the Ombudsman. It would likely have to be something serious or something that couldn’t be resolved directly to warrant going to a patient ombudsman. In fact, on their website, they clearly articulate the process to take to lodge a complaint.
Here is the link if you are interested.
https://patientombudsman.ca/
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This week will prove to be another busy one because on top of the learning new stuff, I have a few volunteer activities along with various doctor appointments. My surgeon’s office called and they scheduled my pre-op appointment at the hospital. I have to come prepared with paperwork where one is to be completed by my family doctor. Funny thing is I spoke to my family doctor last week and she said, that the rules changed on October 1st of this year and she will not be completing the pre-operative history. It all has to do with government changes and certain activities will no longer be funded. I wonder what will happen when I get to the hospital and this information isn’t completed. All I know is Dr. Ok is the best person to complete the info required. The saga continues…
Enjoy your week!!
