You might recall that I submitted a hospital Service Quality and Complaints Commission Dissatisfaction Form back in August. That means, in everyday language, that I filed a complaint.
For the backstory, to read about the reasons for which I felt compelled to submit a complaint for how I was treated back in 2016, you can read my post about feeling betrayed by the healthcare system.
Even though the regional Service Quality and Complaints Commission is supposed to get back to patients within 45 days of a complaint, with a conclusion, I’d expected delays in my case.
That’s because of something that I’d been told during the phone call I received from the Commission in August, to let me know that they’d received my Dissatisfaction Form and other documents.
The person who called me then, from the Commission, advised me that my complaint was being split into several separate files. There would be different investigations taking place within the hospital, as a result of my complaint, for:
- A specialist physician
- An orthopaedic nurse, who worked as a team with the specialist at the hospital
- The refusal of the hospital outpatient clinic to allow me change physicians, when I felt that that this specialist wasn’t providing appropriate care
Then I received a letter from the regional Quality and Complaints Commission, dated November 8th. This letter said that the Québec Government’s Act Respecting Health Services and Social Services gave the Commission 45 days – from receipt of a complaint – to send their conclusions to the patient.
As I’d expected, because of the three separate investigations, they told me that they needed more time to examine my complaint.
At that point, I have to admit that I didn’t think this process was starting off all that well. But I wanted to try to reserve judgement, to give the process a chance. I’m glad I did.
On January 2nd, I had an extra day off after the holidays. The mail had been delivered late, so my husband brought it in when he got home from work. With an odd expression on his face, he handed me a letter marked “Confidential”. It was another letter from the regional Quality & Complaints Commission.
The last letter I’d received had been only to advise me that there would be a delay in the investigation of my complaint, so I wasn’t expecting much. I was wrong.
This time the letter was signed by the Medical Examiner; not a coroner, but rather the physician responsible for investigating any complaints about physicians who work at the hospitals and healthcare institutions within this region.
So now I can tell you why the title of this post is “Validation or vindication?”. First off, what do those two words mean? Here are the definitions from the on-line Oxford Dictionary(1):
- Validate:
Check or prove the validity or accuracy of:- Demonstrate or support the truth or value of.
- Make or declare legally valid.
- Recognize or affirm the validity or worth of (a person or their feelings or opinions); cause (a person) to feel valued or worthwhile.
- Vindicate:
Clear (someone) of blame or suspicion- Show or prove to be right, reasonable, or justified.
The letter from the Medical Examiner states, in black and white, that the specialist physician about whom I’d complained:
- “failed to meet his professional obligations relative to quality of care”
- “also failed to make this diagnosis at the follow-up visits… despite progressive pain, rigidity and swelling of your right hand, and disproportionate relative to the severity of the Colles’ fracture and time elapsed since that fracture”
- “did not establish the diagnosis of CRPS and refer you to appropriate treatment until… more than nine weeks after his initial consultation” which was 2 weeks after the Colles’ fracture”
The letter also included the comments that:
This failure contravenes Article 46 of the Code of Ethics of Physicians:
46. A physician must make his diagnosis with the greatest care, using the most appropriate scientific methods and, if necessary, consulting knowledgeable sources.”
And, finally, the Medical Examiner wrote that:
I have transferred your complaint to the President of the Council of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists of the” regional health authority, “for study toward disciplinary procedures.”
The letter ends with a promise to keep me “informed of progress every two months during the course of this process.”
I read the letter, almost in disbelief, with tears running down my face. Finally. It felt as though I’d been vindicated, but only in the second sense of the definition above. That my complaint had proven to be justified.
That word also has another meaning, though, that a person is cleared of blame or suspicion. And I don’t want to give the impression that the specialist, against whom I’d lodged the complaint, had been cleared of blame.
So the next best word for what I felt when I read that letter, and for what I’m still feeling, is validated. That letter, for me, meets all three senses of the definition of ‘validate'(1):
- Demonstrate or support the truth or value of
- Make or declare legally valid
- Recognize or affirm the validity or worth of (a person or their feelings or opinions)
It has been a long, and often nerve-wracking process, and I’ve spent a lot of time wondering whether I should ever have submitted this complaint. Today I received only a partial conclusion, for one of the three portions of my complaint, but it’s already much more than what I’d hoped for.
My reason for submitting this complaint was that one of my long-time physicians (who’s not treating me for CRPS), suggested that this process is a good way for hospitals – for healthcare systems – to learn, and to prevent similar issues.
By submitting a complaint, I might spare another patient from the same negative experiences that I’ve had. My field is bioethics – or medical ethics – so once he’d told me that I could potentially help other patients by submitting a complaint, well… it was something that I just had to do.
I’ll be posting updates as I receive them, so check back to hear what the disciplinary measures for this specialist physician will turn out to be.
References:
(1) Oxford Dictionary (on-line). Oxford University Press. Accessed 14 Jan 2018. Web: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com