Articles | CAAP – Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine

Independent of the health and social services network

13/03/2018 | Articles, At the CAAP, Health and Social Services

Le CAAP est un organisme communautaire, financé par le ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. Nous déterminons de façon autonome notre mission, nos approches, nos pratiques et nos orientations. Il s’agit d’un organisme à but non lucratif (OBNL) dirigé par un conseil d’administration élu par nos membres.

Ainsi, nous accompagnons et informons nos usagers en toute indépendance des commissariats aux plaintes et autres composantes du réseau de la santé. Nous sommes au service des citoyens.

Le rôle du CAAP dans le réseau de la santé et des services sociaux est reconnu dans les articles 76.6 et 76.7 de la LSSSS.

Excerpt from the Act respecting health services and social services (ARHSSS)

76.6. Le ministre doit […] confier à un organisme communautaire de la région le mandat d’assister et d’accompagner, sur demande, les usagers qui y résident et qui désirent porter plainte auprès d’un établissement de cette région […].

76.7. [L’organisme] a pour fonctions, sur demande, d’assister l’usager dans toute démarche qu’il entreprend en vue de porter plainte auprès d’un établissement, d’une agence ou du Protecteur des usagers et de l’accompagner pendant la durée du recours, y compris lorsque la plainte est acheminée vers le conseil des médecins, dentistes et pharmaciens d’un établissement. Il informe l’usager sur le fonctionnement du régime de plaintes, l’aide à clarifier l’objet de la plainte, la rédige au besoin, l’assiste et l’accompagne, sur demande, à chaque étape du recours, facilite la conciliation avec toute instance concernée et contribue, par le soutien qu’il assure, à la satisfaction de l’usager ainsi qu’au respect de ses droits.

Source : Publication Québec

The Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner

1/03/2018 | Articles, Health and Social Services

The office of a service quality and complaints commissioner is like a “complaints desk” at a public institution within the health and social services network.

These “complaint desks” are staffed by teams that examine the complaints they receive to ensure users’ rights are respected. The teams generally include a commissioner and assistant commissioners. There are also medical examiners who deal with complaints against physicians.

They are responsible for:

Receiving the complaint
Conducting an investigation to determine whether the complaint is founded
Issuing conclusions based on the results of the investigation
Making recommendations if they feel that measures can be put in place to improve the situation

This applies to all complaints about services at an institution, including affliated facilities.

Commissioners have a duty of impartiality. They report directly to the board of directors of the institution. The complaints commissioner is one of the most accessible and fastest means of recourse in the health and social services system!

Example of an individual complaint

27/02/2018 | Articles, At the CAAP

Ms. Gauthier(1) requested a semi-private room when she was first hospitalized. However, she ended up in a room with a man and was very uncomfortable because she needed abdominal care. There were no curtains in between the beds because they had been removed for cleaning.

Ms. Gauthier was very disappointed with her experience at the hospital and wanted to file a complaint, but she did not know where or how to go about it. She had heard about the CAAP and decided to call to find out more.

The advisor who spoke to her explained that she would have to file a complaint with the Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner at the hospital where she had been treated and that she could make her complaint by phone or in writing. Ms. Gauthier didn’t feel comfortable phoning the commissioner herself. She told the advisor that she would prefer to file a written complaint, but that it seemed complicated and lengthy, and that she was a little discouraged. The CAAP advisor explained that she could help her draft her complaint. Ms. Gauthier was pleased and made an appointment with the advisor to proceed with the complaint.

During the meeting, the advisor explained to Ms. Gauthier that she was entitled to her privacy and dignity, even at the hospital, and that her desire to file a complaint was legitimate. The advisor took note of the events so she could prepare a letter for Ms. Gauthier to approve and sign. All Ms. Gauthier had to do after that was send it to the commissioner.

The advisor explained to Ms. Gauthier that the Complaints Commissioner would contact her to hear her version of events. She offered to help Ms. Gauthier prepare and even accompany her to the interview. This made Ms. Gauthier feel more confident. She could see that her request was being taken very seriously.

At the end of the commissioner’s investigation, Ms. Gauthier received a letter from the commissioner. The commissioner concluded that Ms. Gauthier’s complaint was justified and informed her that corrective measures had been put in place at the hospital.

According to the commissioner, temporary measures could have been taken to respect Ms. Gauthier’s privacy, such as putting up a portable screen or moving her to a different room. However, since a semi-private room does not exclude the possibility of sharing the room with someone of the opposite sex, Ms. Gauthier learned that she should have been informed of this possibility. In fact, the commissioner told her that she could have asked to change rooms. The Commissioner recognized that Ms. Gauthier had the right to be informed about all of these alternatives.

She therefore asked the hospital admissions manager to correct this by reminding the staff who manage beds to inform patients of all their options. In addition, a written reminder was also sent to all care teams to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future.

In the end, Ms. Gauthier was able to see that her complaint had helped move things forward.

(1) Not her real name. Any resemblance to actual events experienced by actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Need help with your own complaint?

Ask the CAAP for help!

Complaint examination process

5/10/2017 | Articles, Health and Social Services

The adoption of the Act respecting health services and social services in 1991 led to implementation of the complaint examination process. With this step, the Government of Quebec confirmed the right of any person dissatisfied with the services they received to file a complaint and to be assisted and accompanied in this process.