After a healthcare experience led me to file formal complaints, I followed every process offered, as far as each would let me go. This is the story of trying to be heard about my healthcare experience. 49 moments from the process — filing, investigation, escalation, closure — numbered below so none get lost, because being made smaller, one summary at a time, is what this story is about:
Filing.
From my first call, it appeared nothing I said was written down (1). Seemingly, fewer than half the concerns I filed with the patient-relations office were ever recorded — I learned this months later, from a different organization (2). I was never shown what my file said, so that I could confirm it (3). During the weeks that mattered most to me, I could not reach anyone about my file (4). When I asked for things in writing, I felt it marked me as difficult (5); decisions made by phone were seldom confirmed on paper (6). Asking one office for urgency, I felt I was met with impatience (7). No one explained the route to me: I only found the internal escalation step by reading the policy myself (8); no one mentioned the external review body — I found it by asking for an internal document to be printed (9). Its filing window was nearly spent by then; therefore, I filed in the final weeks, half-finished (10). Many organizations at each intake asked me to tell the story over again (11). None could seemingly name the whole map — who led, who followed, where to start (12); the map I finally followed, I drew myself (13). Every office had its own forms, thresholds and clocks; the clocks never agreed (14).
Investigation.
The offices appeared to wait on one another, in a circle, each needing another to finish (15). One organization waited on decisions from processes stalled and then could not hear my evidence that they had stalled (16). An investigation I requested at the start began the better part of a year later (17) — after the window had closed (18). The written response took over a month to arrive (19). I had listed my concerns one by one; the response addressed none of them by name (20). I was told the review was complete; though I could not find my questions answered inside (21). Organizations apparently do not share files; I re-sent the same records dozens of times (22). Offices evidently missed their own timelines while mine felt were strictly enforced (23). The records process I was directed to was, by its own account, running far behind (24). I felt like the offices outside the health system passed me between them and back (25); I came away feeling like my file was not seen as a priority (26). I felt that calm, organized submissions sank without acknowledgment; even when I stopped being quiet, no reply came (27). It seemed the tone that kept me credible was the tone that stayed unheard (28).
Escalation.
Many times, I asked for my file to move one level up; it never seemed to (29). I felt like no one could say who was accountable for the whole (30); offices held exemptions that appeared to place their own conduct outside review (31). I could not find a way to complain about the complaint process except into the complaint process itself (32). No reference numbers, no visible status, nothing that showed a file moving (33). No one seemed to stay with my file; every contact was a stranger (34). Each level up appeared to be a summary of a summary, until I felt my file described someone I did not recognize (35), and remedies seemed to answer the paraphrase, not my concern (36). Even when an independent voice saw more in the file; it was closed (37). The process simply ended; no one asked whether I felt anything was resolved (38).
Cost.
Nothing in any process asked how the process was treating me (39). It appeared that the strongest outcome the final office could deliver was a report and an apology (40). I felt it consumed years of my life; most of the work was mine (41). A single unanswered email could erase dozens of hours of my time (42). The expenses were mine — fees, printing, faxes, long-distance calls (43). Complaining about services still needed never stopped me from feeling unsafe (44). I couldn’t find a way to rate how any office had served me (45). No one ever said whether anything changed; if it did, nobody told me (the person who paid for the lesson) (46). I did meet kind people at many desks — I feel this pattern is structural, not personal (47). I followed every process as far as it would let me; seemingly, no one concluded in time to matter (48). At the end I held a full account, but no process could apparently receive it whole — I felt every door required it smaller before it opened (49).
What do I feel would have helped? Mechanical things. Read it back before any file moves so the complainant confirms what was recorded. Rebuild the process around answering the complainant's questions, each answer scored by them. Write down and follow the clear goals; what the complaint seeks (in their words). Immediate feedback, acknowledged with a date. Clear rules including one public map of every office, step and deadline, with deadline windows long enough to use. Give every request a reference number and visible status. One accountable person - start to finish. Lastly, I’d like to see a way to give unedited feedback on the process experience.
One last, quiet suggestion. I felt that every stage asked my experience to be shorter — intake, summary, escalation, review. Everything my complaint ever lost, I feel it lost at a moment of summary; what fell away always seemed to be the piece I most needed heard.
Waiting time
Finding your way
Keeping in touch
Team work
Seeing the whole me
Introductions
Being listened to
Explanations
Involved in decisions
Being given time