Meet the Patient Concerns Officer
Who is the Patient Concerns Officer?
The Patient Concerns Officer (PCO) is appointed by and reports to the President and Chief Executive Officer for Alberta Health Services, as required by provincial regulations. To further enhance quality improvement based on patient and family feedback, the PCO also reports on operational items to the Executive Vice President of Quality & Service Improvement.
What does the PCO do?
The PCO is responsible for receiving, investigating and responding to concerns regarding health services, or other support services, provided to patients.
The PCO provides a legislated review of concerns regarding health services or other support services expressed by patients and families, as well as concerns that are submitted by: the public, the Alberta Ombudsman, Alberta Health & Wellness, and other government or community agencies.
Working with patients and families, as well as AHS senior management, the PCO works to ensure that investigations and responses to concerns are fair and thorough, and that all points raised have been appropriately addressed. The goal of the reviews conducted by the PCO is to make improvements, as required, based on the findings of the investigations and feedback from patients and families.
It is important to note that the majority of concerns are likely to be addressed to your satisfaction through either the healthcare team or the Patient Relations Department. At any time through any of these review processes, you can call the Patient Concerns Officer for information regarding the concerns resolution process.
Alberta Health Services is committed to quality improvement and takes patient concerns very seriously. Staff are committed to working with you to resolve the concern as soon as possible.
In the event that patients and families are not completely satisfied with the outcome of a review by the healthcare team or the Patient Relations Department, they may wish to call the Office of the Patient Concerns Officer to initiate a Patient Concerns Officer Review.
A Patient Concerns Officer review will be initiated in the following instances:
- When the patient and/or family do not agree to work with either their local healthcare team or the Patient Relations Department
- If the patient and/or family have already attempted to seek a resolution through the healthcare team or Patient Relations
- If after working with the other options to resolve a concern patients and/or family still feel their concern was not completely resolved by the initial review, a review by the Patient Concerns Officer will be conducted.
When a concern is brought to the Office of the PCO, the PCO will follow up with the complainant to discuss the concern and the review options available. If a legislated review of a concern is desired by patients and/or families, the PCO will facilitate a resolution by conducting a thorough review. That review will consider all appropriate evidence to address each of the points raised by the patient or family. Upon completion of the review, the PCO will provide a final statement of the outcome which will provide a response to the concerns addressed.
When a review is complete, the PCO will inform the complainant of the outcome and their right to contact the Alberta Ombudsman for an external review.
