Halton Hills
Family Health Team

199 Princess Anne Drive,
Georgetown, ON L7G 0E3
Phone: (905) 873-3000
Fax: (905) 873-0800

doctors

Patient Complaint and Feedback Policy

Policy

Halton Hills Family Health Team (HHFHT) is committed to delivering high quality care to all our patients. We encourage patients or their families who have complaints or concerns to follow the procedure described in this policy. This feedback is important to the HHFHT as it provides our team with critical information regarding the health care service we are providing and tells us what is working and what we need to improve.

HHFHT will treat all complaints seriously. We will:

  • deal with complaints promptly
  • ensure patients and families are treated with courtesy and fairness at all times
  • ensure that complaints are dealt with in confidence. Complaints will be shared with only those team members who need to know.
  • will log and file all complaints received so that we can monitor the types of complaints that have been brought to our attention as well as what action we took to resolve the complaints.

Procedure

A complaint represents a level of dissatisfaction with service, and can be provided verbally or in writing to any member of the Family Health Team.

All staff members who receive a complaint shall be empowered to resolve it immediately and informally, as they are able.

The patient shall decide whether a verbal complaint shall be registered formally. In this case, the patient shall present his/her complaint in writing to any member of the Family Health Team.

Complaints shall be dealt with in three stages:

Informal:

Any staff member who receives an informal complaint shall log it and forward to the Executive Director, indicating whether:

  1. he/she has resolved the complaint and in what manner, or
  2. the complaint requires further action.

Formal:

A formal complaint is one that has been submitted in writing by the patient to any member of the Family Health Team.

All formal complaints shall be forwarded to the Executive Director for action.

The Executive Director shall be responsible for determining an appropriate course of action, and shall inform only those individuals who need to know about the complaint and/or who may be involved in resolving the complaint.

The FHT Board of Directors shall be informed as necessary.

Appeal:

If a complaint is not resolved to a patient’s satisfaction, the complaint shall be forwarded to the FHT Board of Directors for further discussion and action as necessary.

Decisions of the Board of Directors shall be final.

The Executive Director shall prepare a report annually for the Board of Directors, summarizing the number and nature of patient complaints.