Independent of the health and social services network

The CAAP is a community organization that is funded by the health and social services minister (Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux). We determine our mission, methods, practices, and priorities independently. The CAAP is a non-profit organization (NPO) governed by a Board of Directors elected by our members.

We accompany and inform our users independently of the complaints commissioners’ offices and other components of the health network. We serve the public.

The CAAP’s role in the health and social services network is recognized in sections 76.6 and 76.7 of the ARHSSS.

Excerpt from the Act respecting health services and social services (ARHSSS)

“76.6. The Minister must […] give a community organization in the region the mandate to assist and support, on request, users residing in the region who wish to address a complaint to an institution in the region […].

76.7. [The organization] shall, on request, assist a user in any step undertaken to file a complaint with an institution or agency or with the Health Services Ombudsman, and provide support to the user throughout the proceeding, including when the complaint is referred to the council of physicians, dentists and pharmacists of an institution. The community organization shall provide information on the complaints process, help the user define the subject of the complaint, draft the complaint where necessary and provide assistance and support on request to the user at each stage of the proceeding, facilitate conciliation between the user and any authority concerned and contribute, through the support so afforded, to the user’s satisfaction and the enforcement of the user’s rights.”

Source: Publications Québec

The Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner

The Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner

The office of a service quality and complaints commissioner is like a “complaints desk” at a public institution within the health and social services network.

These “complaint desks” are staffed by teams that examine the complaints they receive to ensure users’ rights are respected. The teams generally include a commissioner and assistant commissioners. There are also medical examiners who deal with complaints against physicians.

They are responsible for:

  • Receiving the complaint
  • Conducting an investigation to determine whether the complaint is founded
  • Issuing conclusions based on the results of the investigation
  • Making recommendations if they feel that measures can be put in place to improve the situation

This applies to all complaints about services at an institution, including affliated facilities.

Commissioners have a duty of impartiality. They report directly to the board of directors of the institution. The complaints commissioner is one of the most accessible and fastest means of recourse in the health and social services system!

Reporting

Reporting

Users can also report certain situations to the CAAP if they feel that the rights of one or more users have not been respected. Anyone can notify the CAAP of such a situation. If the person wishes, they can remain anonymous.

A good example of this type of reporting is the report filed by a Salvation Army point of service in March 2017 to raise awareness about a problem in a hospital emergency ward.

Thomas, a Salvation Army employee, contacted his local CAAP to ask for help filing a complaint against the hospital in question. The Salvation Army clientele are often homeless and have mental health and substance abuse issues. As a result, they are often uncooperative at the hospital, even if they require emergency care. Emergency room staff were not well equipped to deal with this type of clientele. They often let patients go without providing them with proper care. Thomas saw this as a form of systemic abuse.

Salvation Army users are very vulnerable and will not file complaints on their own. Since Thomas had observed how users were treated but had not experienced the situation himself, he didn’t know how to make his concerns known to emergency room officials The CAAP advisor offered to help him report the situation. Together, they documented the experiences reported by the Salvation Army in a report that Thomas submitted to the Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner of the hospital in question.

“It got people talking about the issue, identifying behaviours, and recognizing that our clientele is not treated in the same way [as other users]. The CAAP helped us structure our approach, know where we were going, and be more comfortable. We got a quick response because our document was taken seriously. The CAAP gave us credibility. We’d been trying to change things for years.”
– Thomas, Salvation Army case worker

The Commissioner took the report very seriously and measures are being put in place to improve the relationship between the hospital and the Salvation Army.

Need help with your own complaint?

Example of an individual complaint

Example of an individual complaint

Ms. Gauthier(1) requested a semi-private room when she was first hospitalized. However, she ended up in a room with a man and was very uncomfortable because she needed abdominal care. There were no curtains in between the beds because they had been removed for cleaning.

Ms. Gauthier was very disappointed with her experience at the hospital and wanted to file a complaint, but she did not know where or how to go about it. She had heard about the CAAP and decided to call to find out more.

The advisor who spoke to her explained that she would have to file a complaint with the Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner at the hospital where she had been treated and that she could make her complaint by phone or in writing. Ms. Gauthier didn’t feel comfortable phoning the commissioner herself. She told the advisor that she would prefer to file a written complaint, but that it seemed complicated and lengthy, and that she was a little discouraged. The CAAP advisor explained that she could help her draft her complaint. Ms. Gauthier was pleased and made an appointment with the advisor to proceed with the complaint.

During the meeting, the advisor explained to Ms. Gauthier that she was entitled to her privacy and dignity, even at the hospital, and that her desire to file a complaint was legitimate. The advisor took note of the events so she could prepare a letter for Ms. Gauthier to approve and sign. All Ms. Gauthier had to do after that was send it to the commissioner.

The advisor explained to Ms. Gauthier that the Complaints Commissioner would contact her to hear her version of events. She offered to help Ms. Gauthier prepare and even accompany her to the interview. This made Ms. Gauthier feel more confident. She could see that her request was being taken very seriously.

At the end of the commissioner’s investigation, Ms. Gauthier received a letter from the commissioner. The commissioner concluded that Ms. Gauthier’s complaint was justified and informed her that corrective measures had been put in place at the hospital.

According to the commissioner, temporary measures could have been taken to respect Ms. Gauthier’s privacy, such as putting up a portable screen or moving her to a different room. However, since a semi-private room does not exclude the possibility of sharing the room with someone of the opposite sex, Ms. Gauthier learned that she should have been informed of this possibility. In fact, the commissioner told her that she could have asked to change rooms. The Commissioner recognized that Ms. Gauthier had the right to be informed about all of these alternatives.

She therefore asked the hospital admissions manager to correct this by reminding the staff who manage beds to inform patients of all their options. In addition, a written reminder was also sent to all care teams to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future.

In the end, Ms. Gauthier was able to see that her complaint had helped move things forward.

(1) Not her real name. Any resemblance to actual events experienced by actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Need help with your own complaint?

Complaint examination process

The adoption of the Act respecting health services and social services in 1991 led to implementation of the complaint examination process. With this step, the Government of Quebec confirmed the right of any person dissatisfied with the services they received to file a complaint and to be assisted and accompanied in this process.