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Guide to Complaint Handling in Health Care Services

Page contents: Introduction | Contents | Training package | Download documents

Introduction

The Health Services Review Council (‘HSRC’) is established under the Health Services (Conciliation and Review) Act 1987. The HSRC is an advisory body, assisting the Minister and the Health Services Commissioner with the health complaints system.

The HSRC recognises that consumer complaints are an inevitable part of any health system.

We believe that dealing promptly and effectively with complaints has considerable benefits for health organisations, including better quality health care, reduced likelihood of litigation, and substantial savings in the direct and indirect costs arising from adverse incidents, complaints and claims.

This Guide is designed to assist health service providers to develop and implement effective complaint handling practices. An important aspect of this is supporting staff to deal with and learn from complaints.

Contents

• About the guide
• Guiding principles for an effective complaint handling system
• Organisational foundations
• Complaint handling process
• Complaint handling skills
• Setting up your system/tools
• Using the Seriousness Assessment Matrix (SAM)

Training package

To enhance information contained in the Guide and assist health services providers in effective complaint handling practices the HSRC has developed the attached training package. It is available in a half-day session aimed at Managers and Clinicians and also a full-day session for frontline staff and complaints officers.

It is envisaged an organisation’s training officer will utilise the resources of the Guide and the training package to train their staff in effective complains handling. We see the two documents being useful tools in assisting organisations in improving the quality of health care they provide.

The HSRC of Victoria gratefully acknowledges the work of Amanda Adrian and Susan Bunting and the funding from the Department of Human Services and the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority in the preparation of this training package.

Download documents

 Guide to Complaint Handling in Health Services - Revised 2011

Complaint handling in health services: A half day seminar for managers and clinicians (1.1mb, pdf)

Complaint handling in health services: A Full day seminar for frontline staff and complaints officers (1mb, pdf)

Complaint handling in health services: A Full day seminar for frontline staff and complaints officers - handouts (398kb, pdf)

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