Management of patient grievances based on HCFA and Joint Commission rules

It has long been recognized that the patient loses "control" in the hospital setting as we as health care providers become the caregivers. Through informed consent, advance directives, and patient involvement with care management planning, we have attempted to return some of that control back to the patient. Grievance resolution is simply another way to give back to the patient some of the control that may have been lost in the complexity of health care institutions. Patients and their families deserve a process that adequately addresses their concerns about their hospitalization, and HCFA and the Joint Commission have now addressed the specifics of how that process should occur. Although the process appears cumbersome, time-consuming, and costly, I believe it allows for some interpretive leeway for hospitals to develop their own policies and procedures to comply with the COPs.