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

Objective This paper explores how hospital complaints managers react to recommendations for systemic quality reforms by health complaints commissions in response to complaints by patients in Queensland and New South Wales. Methods Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with complaints managers in 17 hospitals. Interview transcripts were then thematically analysed and data on responses to health complaint commissions was organised in relation to Valerie Braithwaite's typology of motivational postures. Results Respondents supported involvement by an independent authority where patients had serious complaints about the services they received in hospital, but wanted more negotiation with commissions on service improvement recommendations. 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.

Patient complaints about hospital services: applying a complaint taxonomy to analyse and respond to complaints.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the applicability of a patient complaint taxonomy to data on serious complaint cases. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive study. SETTING: Complaints made to the New South Wales (NSW) Health Care Complaints Commission, Australia between 2005 and 2010. PARTICIPANTS: All 138 cases of serious complaints by patients about public hospitals and other health facilities investigated in the 5-year period. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: A thematic analysis of the complaints was conducted to identify particular complaint issues and the Reader et al. (Patient complaints in healthcare systems: a systematic review and coding taxonomy. BMJ Qual Saf 2014;23:678-89.) patient complaint taxonomy was then used to classify these issues into categories and sub-categories. RESULTS: The 138 investigated cases revealed 223 complaint issues. Complaint issues were distributed into the three domains of the patient complaint taxonomy: clinical, management and relationships. Complaint issue most commonly related to delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis, medication errors, inadequate examinations, inadequate/nil treatment and quality of care including nursing care. CONCLUSIONS: The types of complaints from patients about their healthcare investigated by the NSW Commission were similar to those received by other patient complaint entities in Australia and worldwide. The application of a standard taxonomy to large numbers of complaints cases from different sources would enable the creation of aggregated data. Such data would have better statistical capacity to identify common safety and quality healthcare problems and so point to important areas for improvement. Some conceptual challenges in devising and using a taxonomy must be addressed, such as inherent problems in ensuring coding consistency, and giving greater weight to patient concerns about their treatment.

Suicide in young adults: psychiatric and socio-economic factors from a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Suicide in young adults remains an important public health issue in Australia. The attributable risks associated with broader socioeconomic factors, compared to more proximal psychiatric disorders, have not been considered previously in individual-level studies of young adults. This study compared the relative contributions of psychiatric disorder and socio-economic disadvantage associated with suicide in terms of relative and attributable risk in young adults. METHOD: A population-based case-control study of young adults (18-34 years) compared cases of suicide (n = 84) with randomly selected controls (n = 250) from population catchments in New South Wales (Australia), with exposure information collected from key informant interviews (for both cases and controls). The relative and attributable risk of suicide associated with ICD-10 defined substance use, affective, and anxiety disorder was compared with educational achievement and household income, adjusting for key confounders. Prevalence of exposures from the control group was used to estimate population attributable fractions (PAF). RESULTS: Strong associations were evident between mental disorders and suicide for both males and females (ORs 3.1 to 18.7). The strongest association was for anxiety disorders (both males and females), followed by affective disorders and substance use disorders. Associations for socio-economic status were smaller in magnitude than for mental disorders for both males and females (ORs 1.1 to 4.8 for lower compared to high SES groups). The combined PAF% for all mental disorders (48% for males and 52% for females) was similar in magnitude to socio-economic status (46% for males and 58% for females). CONCLUSION: Socio-economic status had a similar magnitude of population attributable risk for suicide as mental disorders. Public health interventions to reduce suicide should incorporate socio-economic disadvantage in addition to mental illness as a potential target for intervention.

The effects of involuntary job loss on suicide and suicide attempts among young adults: evidence from a matched case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the influence of involuntary job loss on suicide and attempted suicide in young adults. METHOD: A population-based case-control study of young adults (18-34 years) was conducted in New South Wales, Australia. Cases included both suicides (n=84) and attempts (n=101). A structured interview was conducted with next of kin (for suicide cases) and suicide attempters admitted to hospital. Controls selected from the general population were matched to cases by age and sex. Job dismissal or redundancy (involuntary job loss) in the 12 months before suicide or attempt was the main study variable of interest. Suicide and attempts were modelled separately and in combination as outcomes using conditional logistic regression modelling. The analysis was also adjusted for marital status, socio-economic status and diagnosis of an affective or anxiety disorder. RESULTS: Following adjustment for other variables, involuntary job loss was associated with an odds ratio of 1.82 for suicide and attempted suicide (combined) (95% CI 0.98 to 3.37; p=0.058). Low socio-economic status was associated with an odds ratio of 3.80 for suicide and attempted suicide (95% CI 2.16 to 6.67; p<0.001) compared to high socio-economic status (after adjustment). Diagnosis of a mental disorder was associated with a 7.87 (95% CI 5.16 to 12.01; p<0.001) odds ratio of suicide and attempted suicide compared to no diagnosis (after adjustment). Involuntary job loss was associated with increased odds of suicide and attempts when these were modelled separately, but results did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Involuntary job loss was associated with increased odds of suicide and attempted suicide. The strength of this relationship was attenuated after adjustment for socio-economic status and mental disorders, which indicates that these may have a stronger influence on suicide than job loss.

Social connections and suicidal behaviour in young Australian adults: Evidence from a case-control study of persons aged 18-34 years in NSW, Australia.

PURPOSE: There is evidence that social isolation is a risk factor for suicide, and that social connections are protective. Only a limited number of studies have attempted to correlate the number of social connections a person has in their life and suicidal behaviour. METHOD: Two population-based case-control studies of young adults (18-34 years) were conducted in New South Wales, Australia. Cases included both suicides (n=84) and attempts (n=101). Living controls selected from the general population were matched to cases by age-group and sex. Social connections was the main exposure variable (representing the number of connections a person had in their life). Suicide and attempts as outcomes were modelled separately and in combination using conditional logistic regression modelling. The analysis was adjusted for marital status, socio-economic status, and diagnosis of an affective or anxiety disorder. RESULTS: Following adjustment for other variables, those who had 3-4 social connections had 74% lower odds of suicide deaths or attempts (OR=0.26, 95% CI 0.08, 0.84, p=0.025), and those with 5-6 connections had 89% lower odds of suicide deaths or attempts (OR=0.11 95% CI 0.03, 0.35, p<0.001), compared to those with 0-2 social connections. With the number of social connection types specified as a continuous variable, the odds ratio was 0.39 per connection (95% CI 0.27, 0.56, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A greater number of social connections was significantly associated with reduced odds of suicide or attempt. This suggests that suicide prevention initiatives that promote increased social connections at an individual, familial, and wider social levels might be effective.

Reasons for cannabis use in psychosis.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the reasons for cannabis use among individuals with psychotic disorders. METHOD: Forty-nine people with psychotic disorders in treatment with community health centres in Northern Sydney were interviewed to collect information about their experience of antipsychotic side-effects and their influence on cannabis use. Other information collected on cannabis use included: amount and frequency, effects of use and other general reasons given for use. RESULTS: It was found that boredom, social motives, improving sleep, anxiety and agitation and symptoms associated with negative psychotic symptoms or depression were the most important motivators of cannabis use. Positive symptoms of psychosis and antipsychotic side-effects that were not associated with anxiety, were not important motivators of cannabis use. CONCLUSIONS: As cannabis use may precipitate relapse in this population, it is important to reduce these motivators of use. Clinician's must assess and treat these problems, thus reducing the need for patients to self-medicate with cannabis, and therefore reducing the risk of relapse.

Implementation of a SNAP intervention in two divisions of general practice: a feasibility study.

"SNAP" is a model for the general practice management of four common behavioural risk factors: smoking, nutrition, alcohol and physical activity. The SNAP program was developed for the Australian Government in 2002. In 2003 and 2004, a feasibility study was conducted in one urban and one rural division of general practice (DGP) in NSW, in partnership with their local area health services. Information technology support and referral directories were developed, based on an initial needs assessment, SNAP guidelines, a clinical summary chart, patient education materials, and general practitioner and staff training. GPs reported that the SNAP approach fitted general practice consultations well. After its implementation, they were more confident in using motivational interviewing and SNAP interventions and referred more frequently. The impact and sustainability of the SNAP program were limited by a lack of effective practice teamwork, poor linkages with referral services, and the lack of a business model to support SNAP in the practices. DGPs could play an important role in providing practice visits and resources to improve communication, education and collaboration to support SNAP programs.

Deinstitutionalization for long-term mental illness: a 6-year evaluation.

OBJECTIVE: Forty-seven patients with long-term mental illness were transferred to the community following the closure of a psychiatric hospital in Sydney. This 6-year evaluation is an extension of a detailed clinical, ethnographic and economic study of the initial 2-years of community transition. METHOD: Quantitative evaluation was conducted using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Life Skills Profile, Social Behaviour Scale, Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale and Quality Of Life measures. Assessments were completed prior to discharge and at two- and 6-year intervals following community transfer. Repeated measures analysis was utilized to determine changes in outcome variables over time. The residents' perception of 6-years of community living was explored in qualitative semistructured interviews. Details of accommodation, level of care, readmissions, incidents and medication were also documented. RESULTS: During the 6 years following community relocation a total of seven residents returned to hospital for long-term care, three residents died from medical causes and one resident required detention in a corrective services facility. The 36 residents who remained in the community at the 6-year follow-up no longer required intensive 24-h supervision. Living semi-independently, 23 residents resided in two to three person accommodation with either daily or weekly case manager visits. Clinically, community residents remained stable over the 6 years without significant changes in psychiatric symptoms, depression, living skills or social behaviour problems. Clinical stability was achieved with significant reduction in medication levels over the 6 years. Community-based residents continued to experience improved quality of life and reported their marked preference for living in the community. CONCLUSION: The residents maintained community tenure with significant improvement in quality of life and a reduction in medication, supported by a mental health system with adequate community resources. Issues regarding continuing rehabilitation and social integration need to be addressed. Further deinstitutionalization will require 24-h supervision for most initially and for some on a continuing basis. An ageing population will require specific age related medical and psychiatric services.