Our vision for St. Mary’s Maternity & Children’s Hospital, Inc. is to be ‘the best at what we
do’. Whatever the setting, care and services will be provided to the highest standards of
quality, safety and reliability with the patient at the centre of all decisions about their health
needs and care.
This policy outlines the system for receiving, handling, responding and learning from
feedback, comments, concerns or complaints SMMCHI health care and services.
That all employees of SMMCHI are responsible in managing feedback, comments and
suggestions from patients and clients. Thus, the Human Resource department will
consolidate all feedback forms and conduct investigations as related to the complaints or
any comment and suggestion given.
Fair care is ensured to all without any discrimination between persons on grounds of sex,
marital status, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, language, social origin, other personal
attributes, including beliefs or opinions, such as religious beliefs or political opinions.
Guidance for handling & learning from feedback, comments, concerns or complaints
about SMMCHI Health Care Services:
i. Approach - The emphasis for all forms of feedback, comments and concerns
should be on early and local resolution. Staff should always respond positively
and appropriately to anyone who provides feedback, comments or concerns and:
Response
person providing the feedback. The emphasis should be on avoiding any non
essential escalation which could cause anxiety to those involved. As before it is
essential to provide re-assurance that the feedback, comment or concern has
been listened to, understood and outline how this will be handled via escalation.
iii. If the person is raising concerns and remains unhappy after receiving an oral or
written response, staff should explore the possible further options with them.
They should consider whether a meeting with a senior manager might be
appropriate or whether the person raising the concern should more
appropriately be lodging a complaint. Feedback and Complaints handling staff
will be able to assist in this assessment.
Record keeping
and concerns they receive. Monitoring will be undertaken with due regard to
patient confidentiality and to the principles of equality and diversity in terms of
the person providing the information and the content of the feedback. In so
doing SMMCHI will identify areas for action in relation to improvement.
Feedback, comments and concerns received should also be monitored and action
taken as appropriate.
iii. Relevant SMMCHI Bodies have a responsibility to gather information on their
own services and the health service providers within their area on an annual
basis in relation to feedback, comments and concerns. Thus, the Administration
will consolidate all gathered data from the feedback forms and make reports
within a month and within the year to give considerations on all the necessary
updates to be done.
Prepared by:
Approved by: