Pre-Congress Masterclass
Wednesday 28 March 2012 | 1pm - 5pm
Best Practice in Handling
Healthc are Complaints
Complaints managers have an important role to address
complaints in a timely, professional and conciliatory manner.
Dealing with complaints early can prevent litigation and
grief associated with situations where clients continue to
be disgruntled because their matters were not dealt with
appropriately in the first instance. This workshop, based
on over a decade of experience in dealing with complaints,
will take participants through:
- Introduction to complaints legislation and standards
- How to handle complaints from receiving the initial letter to resolution
- What information to gather and how to gather it
- Analysing information and reporting on incidents
- How to conduct interviews
- Organising information and timelines
- Dealing with difficult complainant behaviour
- What happens when a complaint is made about a registered health professional
- Making effective recommendations
- Knowing when to involve the lawyers
- Using complaints for systemic reform
Participants will work through case examples and
discuss the benefits of having a standard approach, while
maintaining flexibility to deal with the requirements of
a particular case.
About the facilitator:
Mary Durkin PSM has been the ACT
Health Services Commissioner since 2007. In her early
years of public service, Mary worked in public housing,
aged care and as a lawyer in a range of areas in the
Commonwealth Attorney Generals Department. In 2004
Mary joined the Commonwealth Ombudsmans office.
She was the Deputy Ombudsman in 2006/07, prior to
taking up the position of Health Services Commissioner
in the ACT in July 2007. Mary was also appointed as the
Disability and Community Services Commissioner in 2010.
Mary has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tasmania
and a Bachelor of Laws from the Australian National
University. In 2008 she was awarded the Public Service
Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
