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BC's Little Known Resource for Unhappy Patients

Health care advocates wonder why quality review boards are so under-publicized.

Tom Sandborn 5 Aug 2013TheTyee.ca

Tom Sandborn covers labour and health policy beats for The Tyee. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at [email protected].

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What resource do you have as a patient in B.C.? Hospital image via Shutterstock.

If a surgeon has left drill bits inside your body, or your mother's pressure sores have gone untreated for too long in a residential care home, or you've been subjected to an unnecessarily rough colonoscopy, who are you going to call?

Since 2008, patients in British Columbia who are unhappy with the care they receive in facilities funded through the six health authorities in the province have had an option to register their complaints with each of the authorities' Patient Care Quality Review Boards.

Yet many informed health professionals contacted by The Tyee were not aware of the boards' existence, and both health care advocates and a hospital workers' union say they are too little known.

Even the head of one of the boards agrees it needs to do a better job of informing the public about its existence, as does the province's ombudsperson, which noted in the conclusion of a 2012 report that "It is not surprising that people are confused about where to complain, because none of the health authorities provide complete and clear information about the complaints that each agency will and will not respond to, or how they will do so."

Typically, the care review boards recommend improved treatment protocols, better communication with patients, including follow up meetings, and occasionally a change in diagnosis when a patient or family member believes that a patient has been misdiagnosed.

What they can do for you

Passed in 2008, the Patient Care Quality Review Board Act ensures that each health authority has a review board to consider complaints not resolved at the hospital, agency or care home where they originated.

The board considers complaints that occur in facilities funded directly or indirectly through health authorities, including hospitals, the BC Cancer Agency, the BC Centre for Disease Control, the BC Ambulance Service and some long term care homes.

It looks at allegations of poorly delivered services and of services expected but not received. It doesn't address complaints about health professionals providing services in private practice.

According to the 2011-2012 annual report of the boards, "The Patient Care Quality Review Board Act has established a clear, consistent, timely and transparent process for addressing care quality concerns."

But some observers point out that the system can't respond to complaints it doesn't hear and that the boards haven't been properly promoted to the public, which explains the relatively low volume of business carried out by them since 2008 (see sidebar).

Patients don't feel heard: union

Margi Blamey, who speaks for the Hospital Employees' Union, said that the quality review boards are an important but seriously flawed initiative.

"The board members are clearly well intentioned and able," Blamey said in an interview. "But too often people don't know the boards are available, and when they do find out the process involved can be over-bureaucratic.

"Over and over again, we hear from patients, family members and hospital workers that the system doesn't leave them feeling heard."

Blamey said that the boards should be made more accessible, responsive and easier to navigate. She hopes the government will take steps to make the complaint process easier and publicize it.

Although Blamey sees value in the way the quality review boards can address individual patient concerns, she says that many of the care complaints she's aware of reflect systemic problems that would require more staff and funding to remedy.

Dr. Jack Chritchley, a physician and chair of the Fraser, Vancouver Coastal and Provincial Health Services boards, agrees that his organization might have a problem of public profile.

"This has been deliberated many times by the reviewers and the ministry and before the ombudsperson's report. The Health Ministry has, over the years, instituted a number of strategies to address patient awareness and is in the planning stage of a new public information strategy now," Chritchley wrote in an email to The Tyee.

Ryan Jabs, who speaks for the B.C. Ministry of Health, says the ministry has made efforts to inform the public about the complaint process available through the boards. He pointed out in a July email to The Tyee that the program was announced via news release when it was founded. The release of the boards' first annual report was also publicized, he said.

"It is most important," he wrote, "that those who have concerns are aware of this service. This information is given to anyone who contacts a health authority or the Ministry of Health with a complaint or concern about their care. As well, when patient complaints are directed towards the media -- we attempt to ensure that information about the Patient Care Review process is publicized."

Jabs said that the ombudsperson's recommendations on ensuring public awareness have been taken into consideration "as we continue working to develop enhanced strategies for the promotion of the Patient Care Quality program."  [Tyee]

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