Responses by hospital complaints managers to recommendations for systemic reforms by health complaints commissions.

Conclusions Hospital complaints managers mostly responded as virtuous or rational actors to the symbolic power of complaints commissions. This may be context dependent because Australian health commissions operate within a pro-reform context as a result of recent publicity around health system failures.What is known about the topic? Little is known about regulatory relationships between complaints commissions and hospitals. There has been no Australian research considering how complaints managers respond to commission recommendations for quality improvements and reforms to hospital services.What does the paper add? The paper uses a novel theoretical framework based on regulatory theory to understand and describe the reactions of complaints managers to commission recommendations.What are the implications for practitioners? Commissions should seek commentary from complaints managers through open dialogue before making final recommendations. This will ease the progress of reforms and make recommendations more acceptable and 'genuine' in the specific context of the hospital. PMID: 27764646 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research