Patients’ complaints will be examined by a special group: the inspection will not be initiated in all cases

After the new procedure comes into force, a special group will examine patient complaints, the inspection will not be initiated in all cases, the State Accreditation Service for Health Care Activities reported on Friday.

According to the procedure in force until now, the service, upon receiving a duly submitted complaint, initiated a quality check of personal health care services in all cases.

According to the report, during these inspections, violations of legal acts and procedures regulating the internal processes of health institutions were often identified, for which the service must impose sanctions on the institutions.

“The inspections themselves take a long time, the detected violations are not necessarily related to the specific case of the complainant, personal health care institutions often appeal such decisions in court,” the report states.

According to the updated procedure, a person’s appeal will be examined by the newly assembled Complaints Evaluation Group, which will evaluate the properly submitted complaint according to the newly introduced criteria based on the risk assessment of patient safety. The complaint will be considered if it is established that the risk of harm to the patient’s health has been caused or the patient’s health has been harmed by possibly inappropriate diagnostic and treatment actions.

The complaint will be considered if it is established that the risk of harm to the patient’s health has been caused or the patient’s health has been harmed by possibly inappropriate diagnostic and treatment actions.

Also, the complaint will be considered in the event that the patient’s rights or legal interests were violated, and this negatively affected the patient’s legal status. In addition, this will be done if an adverse event has occurred, when a systemic effect on patient safety can be seen, and it is expected that the results of its examination will have a direct impact on improving patient safety and preventing adverse events in a personal health care facility.

According to the report, if these criteria are not established, or if it is determined that the possible violation of the patient’s rights was caused by the inappropriate management of personal health care services of the institution, inappropriate or insufficient cooperation with the patient, and these shortcomings can be eliminated during the re-examination of the complaint at the health institution, the complaint will be submitted together with the recommendations of the Accreditation Service to be examined by the complained institution within one month.

“The Complaints Evaluation Team will then assess how the complainant has handled the complaint, and if the latter has been properly dealt with in accordance with the Service’s recommendations, the process will be completed.” The Accreditation Service will make a decision on a properly examined complaint and will inform the applicant about it,” the report states.

If the complaint has not been dealt with in accordance with the service’s recommendations, it will be dealt with through a comprehensive quality check.