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The College's Complaints Response Process

Contact

For any complaint inquires please contact:

Tracy Hastings
Regulatory Services Coordinator
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan
500-321A-21st Street East
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
S7K 0C1
Phone 306-244-7355
Fax 306-244-0090

  1. Principles

    1. All College personnel involved with the College's response process shall act with personal integrity and in full compliance with all of the Executive Limitations articulated by the Council.

    2. College personnel involved in the process shall be ever mindful that perceptions of fairness and justice are as important as the reality of fairness and justice. They shall consistently conduct themselves in a manner that fosters both the reality and perception of fairness and justice for both complainants and respondents.

    3. Under the governance policies enacted by the Council, the Registrar is held accountable to the Council for the fairness and justice of the College's response to complaints.

    4. The Registrar may delegate certain executive management functions in respect to complaints investigation and resolution to a manager retained for this purpose.

    5. The Registrar will maintain a Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee which shall have equal membership of members of the College and non-medical members. The Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee is a staff committee rather than a Council committee. It therefore operates in an advisory capacity to the manager of the complaints process who is accountable to the Registrar.

  2. Process

    1. Complaints and/or expressions of concern may be first raised to the College's attention in writing or verbally.

    2. A verbal complaint/concern which is resolvable to the satisfaction of both parties may be resolved through facilitative intervention by the College's full time executive staff (Registrar, Deputy Registrar or Director of Communications).

    3. For statistical purposes a log of complaints resolved through informal intervention by the executive staff of the College shall be maintained.

    4. When a verbal complaint/concern is not amenable to informal low level resolution, the complainant shall be asked to submit the complaint in writing.

    5. When, because of illiteracy or any other handicap which compromises the complainant's capacity to prepare a written complaint, the complainant shall be offered assistance from a complainant advocate. After verbal interaction with the complainant, the complainant advocate shall prepare a written draft of the complaint which shall be submitted to the complainant for review, revision and signature by the complainant before it is accepted as the record of complaint.

    6. Upon receipt of a written complaint, the College shall promptly provide to the complainant:

      1. Acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint.

      2. A written explanation of options for addressing the complaint and the implications of these options.

      3. A consent document which seeks authorization from the complainant to proceed with investigation/adjudication of the complaint.

      4. Information about advocacy/support services offered to complainants by the College.

    7. Upon receipt of a signed consent for investigation of the complaint, the complaint investigation co-ordinator shall:

      1. Disclose the complaint to the respondent physician requesting written response in compliance with the College Bylaws and enclose information prepared by the S.M.A. in respect to the services of the Member Advisory Committee.

      2. From review of the written complaint identify collateral information which may be relevant to the complaint and assemble that information.

      3. On receipt of the respondent's written reply to the complaint, disclose that reply to the complainant and invite further written response from the complainant.

      4. After having assembled all of the information deemed relevant to the file, concurrently submit the completed complaint file to the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee and the manager of the complaints process.

    8. On the basis of the information contained in the completed complaints file, the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee shall determine if it believes the matter can be adjudicated "on the record" or whether it perceives merit in direct interaction between the Committee and the complainant and respondent.

    9. Where the Committee believes that a complaint can be adjudicated "on the record", it may proceed to generate a written opinion which is based on its review of the written record.

    10. The manager of the complaints process shall be fully familiar with each complaint file and shall attend every meeting of the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee in its entirety. Where the manager of the complaints process believes it would be more prudent to have the complainant and respondent interact directly with the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee, the manager shall have the authority to arrange such interaction notwithstanding the Committee's initial disinclination to do so. As an alternative to interview with the entire Committee, the manager of the complaints process may (at any time) elect to interview both the complainant and the respondent and provide a written report of these interviews to the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee.

    11. When a complainant is interviewed by the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee or the manager of the complaints process, the complainant is entitled to be accompanied by the College supplied complainant advocate and/or any other advocate/support person of the complainant's choice.

    12. When a respondent physician is interviewed by the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee or the manager of the complaints process, the respondent physician is entitled to be accompanied by Legal Counsel and/or any other advocate/support person of the respondent's choice.

    13. When the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee or the manager of the complaints process wish an independent expert opinion about issues raised in the complaint, either may arrange for such external expert opinion.

    14. The content of any external expert opinion Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee obtained by the or the manager of the complaints process is dissoluble to both the complainant and the respondent, but confidentiality in respect to authorship of the opinion shall be maintained.

    15. At the conclusion of all its deliberations, the opinion of the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee is to be regarded as advisory to the manager of the complaints process.

    16. When the manager of the complaints process concurs with the opinion of the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee, he/she shall communicate that opinion to both the complainant and the respondent.

    17. When the manager of the complaints process does not concur with the opinion of the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee, he/she shall advise the Registrar of the opinion of the Committee and the basis for his/her disagreement with that opinion.

    18. The Registrar may take any further action that he/she deems appropriate to investigate, adjudicate and/or resolve the complaint. The decision of the Registrar shall represent the final decision of the College subject to the Council review process anticipated in (Policy Governance - Executive Limitation EL-7 (2.3.)

    19. There shall be a mechanism for Council review of appeals from complainants and respondent physicians in respect to complaints/concerns filed with the College. That review mechanism shall not be activated until a final opinion has been rendered through the manager of the complaints process or the Registrar.

    20. In general, input from the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee shall be sought only in respect to complaints filed by patients and/or relatives/guardians of patients in respect to physician conduct/performance. Allegations of sexual boundary breaches between physicians and patients shall not be directed to the Complaints Resolution Advisory Committee but shall be brought directly to the Registrar's attention. The Registrar may resolve such allegations through mediation or forward the allegations to the Council for potential action by the Council.

    21. Complaints, concerns and allegations about physician performance/conduct raised by medical colleagues, co-workers, health system administrators, health boards, law enforcement agencies, governmental agencies or any other persons/agencies other than patients/relatives/guardians shall be directed to the attention of the Registrar. Such complaints/allegations may be resolved directly by the Registrar or referred to the Council.

    22. The Registrar shall maintain a record of complaints addressed through direct intervention by the Registrar or ADR.

    23. The College shall maintain two options for mediation as a process for a complaint/concern resolution. These options shall include:

      1. Internal mediation in which a member of the College's executive staff functions as mediator.

      2. External mediation which engages the services of an independent external mediator.

    24. In respect to internal mediation, the Registrar, Deputy Registrar, Director of Communication or manager of the complaints process may offer this option and initiate it with the consent of both parties.

    25. External mediation may only be initiated with prior approval by the Registrar.

    26. In respect to all complaints that are received in writing, at the conclusion of the complaints resolution process both the complainant and the respondent physician shall receive a survey which solicits feedback in respect to their satisfaction with both process and outcome.

    27. Data from this satisfaction survey process shall be reviewed by the Registrar to determine where enhancements might be made to the process to increase satisfaction of both complainants and respondents.

  3. Personnel

    1. To maximize the opportunity for citizens to interact with the College about concerns/complaints, a verbal complaint may be "fielded" in the first instance by the co-ordinator of the complaints process, the manager of the complaints process, the Director of Communication, the Deputy Registrar or the Registrar.

    2. All written complaints shall be directed to the attention of the complaints process co-ordinator.

    3. Effective August 1999 the College will engage on a contractual basis a physician who will serve as manager of the complaints process.

    4. Effective August 1999, the College will engage in-house Legal Counsel. For legal reasons, which serve to maximize deployment flexibility, that individual will be designated as the Deputy Registrar of the College and will serve as the complainant advocate.

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF SASKATCHEWAN COUNCIL POLICY
Policy Name: Values Re: Complaint Resolution Number: GP-14
Policy Type: Governance Process Date Approved: August 14, 1998

Council is committed to ensuring that in the process of resolving complaints regarding behaviour of its members justice is done and justice is seen to be done.

Accordingly, all processes shall ensure fairness and equity to both complainant and respondent, and the observation of due process and the principles of natural justice, specifically:

  1. Ease of access to the complaints process.

  2. Timely response and resolution.

  3. Fair opportunity for both sides of an issue to be heard.

  4. Deliberation by individuals who are competent and knowledgeable regarding the issue being decided.

  5. Due diligence in consideration of the issue.

  6. Consistent treatment of similar cases.

  7. Transparency in the process used.

  8. Cost-effectiveness in the process used, provided that none of the other principles are violated.

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF SASKATCHEWAN COUNCIL POLICY
Name: Appeals to Council as a Result of the Complaints Process Number: GP-16
Type: Governance Process Date Approved: April 9, 1999

Council wishes to ensure that its philosophy of complaints resolution as outlined in policy GP-14 is adhered to. This policy describes under what circumstances a party may appeal the decisions of a complaints procedure to Council and the latitude of Council's response to such an appeal.

  1. Any party to the complaints process may make an appeal to Council in the following circumstances:

    1.1. Where the party has exhausted the internal complaints processes as established by the Registrar, and

    1.1.1. If the party alleges that a rule or rules of the complaints process was or were violated including violation of the principles of natural justice or fairness;

    1.1.1.1. This would include situations in which the party alleges that they were treated in a manner that discriminated on the basis of their age, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.

  2. All appeals will be:

    2.1. Presented to Council in written form and will restrict themselves to dealing with the issues covered in Section 1 of this policy.

    2.2. Will be determined on the basis of the record.

  3. Upon receiving an appeal, Council may make such an order as may be appropriate and necessary which, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, may include one or more of the following:

    3.1. Council may confirm the result of the complaints process;

    3.2. Council may refer the complaint back to the Registrar or any person or persons delegated by the Registrar to handle complaints or any committee established by the Registrar for handling complaints with or without guidance as to its findings regarding issues in Section 1 of this policy;

    3.3. Council may vary the result of the complaints process;

    3.4. Council may substitute its own decision for that of the complaints process;

    3.5. Council may quash the result of the complaints process.

  4. Nothing in this policy precludes or restricts the powers of Council under Part V of the Medical Profession Act or its bylaws.

  5. Nothing in this policy precludes the rights of persons to appeal under Part VI of the Medical Profession Act or its bylaws.