At CISSS des Laurentides, we were faced with three problems regarding the processing of medical complaints: difficulty recruiting medical examiners; significant delays in processing medical complaints; and no medical examiners for nearly a year.

We therefore considered a strategy to improve response times for medical complaints, as well as to reduce the number of received complaints still waiting to be processed. To this end, we implemented a pilot project to integrate a consultancy role, which was taken up by a team member with all the professional skills required to perform this function.

The additional professional helped us to improve medical complaint processing times by transferring to the consultant the administrative and research tasks for the files that would normally be performed by the medical examiner, thereby allowing the examiner to devote their full attention to reviewing the complaints.

In addition, to follow pilot project’s progress, we implemented performance indicators, which are monitored daily. The professional was tasked with reviewing all the work tools used by the medical examiners, including setting up a bank of sample letters and updating the file tracking chart.

This structure has allowed us to significantly improve our average medical complaint processing time and reduce the number of files awaiting processing, despite a 16% increase in complaints.

Project submitted by Marie-Josée Boulianne, Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner

Other contributors: Marie-Josée Boulianne, Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner; Viviane Genest, Consultant