Methods used by health ombudsman in their system improvement role: A comparison of two international health ombudsman in their system improvement role and the response of Scottish health boards to the system improvement activities of the SPSO

Academics and ombudsman claim that a key role for ombudsman is to contribute to the improvement of the system over which they have oversight. However, there is limited research to support this claim and, much of what exists, is equivocal. This research examines the thesis that health ombudsman make a significant contribution to the improvement of the healthcare system as a result of the roles and activities that they undertake together with the way that they work with bodies in jurisdiction. In conducting this research, an international comparative case study was undertaken, using the Office of the Health Ombudsman, Queensland (OHOQ) and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) as cases. In addition, three Scottish health boards participated in the research. The OHOQ was found not to be an ombudsman but to be a health complaint entity which principally focused on the prosecution of health professionals that it considers have conducted serious professional misconduct. The SPSO is an ombudsman, which principally tries to contribute to system improvement through compliance from health boards with recommendations arising from upheld complaints. In its approach to complaint investigations, the SPSO adopts the positions of an accountability institutional logic and coercive model of administrative control. These positions adversely affect the relationship between the SPSO and health boards with health board participants complaining about the nature of the communication between themselves and the SPSO, the quality of the clinical advice relied upon by the SPSO in reaching its decisions, and the inability to challenge either the advice or the decision. Consequently, in many cases, compliance with SPSO recommendations was due to a fear of sanction rather than commitment. In implementing recommendations, health boards use a dominant informational mode of organisational learning. Together, these factors explain why learning is unsustained leading to repeated complaints about the same issue

The response from Scottish health boards to complaint investigations by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman: A qualitative case-study

Gavin McBurnie - ORCID: 0000-0002-0031-3950 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0031-3950This article explores how complaint investigations undertaken by health ombudsman contribute to the improvement of the healthcare system. Using a qualitative case-study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants form the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) and three health boards within its jurisdiction. Health board participants were frustrated by complaints process used by the SPSO, in particular the lack of communication during an SPSO investigation especially when there were differences in clinical judgment. Using Braithwaite’s typologies of motivational postures and Hertogh’s models of administrative control it was found that a sense of capitulation was the primary determinant in ensuring health board compliance with SPSO recommendations and that the relationship between SPSO and health boards was predominantly coercive in nature. For the SPSO to be more effective in contributing to system improvement requires it to review its role and means of conducting complaint investigations.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744552323000149aheadofprintaheadofprin

Understanding the response from health organisations to health ombudsman investigations – a new conceptual model

Item not available in this repository.https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ombudsman-in-the-modern-state-9781509943241/pubpu

Independent review of The Public Transport Ombudsman, Victoria

Item not available in this repository.This report outlines the findings of the five-year independent review of the PTO, conducted by the Consumer Dispute Resolution Centre at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland.https://www.ptovic.com.au/documents/independent-reviews/10-2019-independent-review-of-pto-queen-margaret-university-1/filehttps://www.ptovic.com.au/about-us/charterpubpu

Independent Review of Utilities Disputes Limited (New Zealand) - 2017

This report outlines the findings of the Five Year Independent Review of the approved Energy Complaints Scheme provided by Utilities Disputes but also includes a wider review of Utilities Disputes Limited. The scope of the review was to assess whether Utilities Disputes and, in particular, its Energy Complaints Scheme was operating effectively and meeting the key criteria expected of industry based dispute resolution schemes

“It’s the most ethical job I have ever had”: Complaint handling and fair decision making in the financial industry

This exploratory study focuses on complaint handling in the financial industry to explore how complaint handling professionals interpret the requirement to treat customers fairly. Drawing on a small qualitative case study undertaken with a major UK financial institution, it is a novel attempt to integrate the literatures on ethical and fair decision making and apply them to the practice of complaint handling. Our contribution is to highlight: (1) the impact that institutional structures and processes play on the day to day practice of fair decision making; (2) how constructions of fairness vary between complaint handlers with some adopting an explicit ethical and moral focus; and (3) the active role group support and dialogue plays in supporting individual complaint handler’s fair decision making. Several practical implications arise from this in relation to how organisations can support fair decision making.https://doi.org/10.1504/IJBGE.2021.11860215pubpub