Regulating healthcare complaints: a literature review
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance
ISSN: 0952-6862
Article publication date: 8 July 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore approaches to the regulation of healthcare complaints and disciplinary processes.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was conducted across Medline, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, Google Scholar and the health, law and social sciences collections of Informit, using terms tapping both the complaints process and regulation generally.
Findings
A total of 118 papers dealing with regulation of health complaints or disciplinary proceedings were located. The review reveals a shift away from self-regulation towards greater external oversight, including innovative regulatory approaches including “networked governance” and flexible or “responsive” regulation. It reports growing interest in adoption of strategic and responsive approaches to health complaints governance, by rejecting traditional legal forms in favor of more strategic and responsive forms, taking account of the complexity of adverse health events by tailoring responses to individual circumstances of complainants and their local environments.
Originality/value
The challenge of how to collect and harness complaints data to improve the quality of healthcare at a systemic level warrants further research. Scope also exists for researching health complaints commissions and other “meta-regulatory” bodies to explore how to make these processes fairer and better able to meet the complex needs of complainants, health professionals, health services and society.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
EM Chiarella, M Walton, B Bennett, T Carney, and PJ Kelly are in receipt of Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant (LP110200075), in partnership with AHPRA and HPCA, to compare the complaints and notification system under the national system and in NSW. CS Satchell is the project manager for the grant and in receipt of a salary from this grant.
Competing interests: Mary Chiarella is a paid AHPRA-affiliated Australia Nursing and Midwifery Board member. Merrilyn Walton is an AHPRA Management Committee paid member and was the founding Commissioner for the HCCC (1994-2000). Belinda Bennett is an AHPRA-affiliated Medical Board and a HPCA-affiliated Medical Council of NSW paid member.
Citation
Beaupert, F., Carney, T., Chiarella, M., Satchell, C., Walton, M., Bennett, B. and Kelly, P. (2014), "Regulating healthcare complaints: a literature review", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 505-518. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHCQA-05-2013-0053
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited