Care Opinion Canada is a storytelling platform that allows you to share your experience of health and care services. Care Opinion is a program of Imagine Citizens Network. It is not a formal complaint process, nor part of a complaint process.
If you are planning to make a complaint, or have an ongoing complaint, about your care
Care Opinion will review your story, but it is unlikely that Care Opinion would publish it, until it is confirmed that the complaints process is complete. When submitting a story that is part of an ongoing complaint, it is important to note that:
- When you post on the Care Opinion Canada website, you are likely to be identifiable to the staff who are looking into your complaint. Storytellers should remain anonymous.
- Care Opinion Canada will not be able to publish your story if the staff are recognizable.
- If you have a complaint in progress, it is unlikely that you will receive a detailed response through Care Opinion.
- Having two different sources of communication with the same provider, at the same time, could result in delays or hinder progress.
If a complaint about your care is completed
The Care Opinion team can review a story about an experience of care after the complaint process is complete. Should there be a low risk of identification of the storyteller, patient, or staff, your story may be published. This will usually only be possible if the complaint was about non-clinical issues.
Posting on the Care Opinion Canada website is not a way to reopen your complaint, or reach a different complaint outcome.
If you have made a formal complaint and would like to share a story about that process, rather than about the experience of care, the Care Opinion team can review this. In some cases, we can publish stories about the complaints process. If you have been unhappy with the complaint process, we have included a couple of alternatives.
There is a health service ombudsman in Alberta:
https://www.ombudsman.ab.ca/patient-concerns-resolution-process/
Office of the Alberta Health Advocates:
https://www.alberta.ca/office-of-alberta-health-advocates
How is posting on the Care Opinion Canada website different to making a formal complaint?
The table below summarizes some of the differences between Care Opinion Canada and making a formal complaint.
| Care Opinion Canada website | Formal complaint |
| Informal and online | Formal and usually on paper |
| Outside the organization | Inside the organization |
| You remain anonymous | You do not remain anonymous |
| Public: everyone can read it | Private: only you and the organisation can see it |
| You may not get any response | You should always get a response |
| Multiple organizations may respond | A single organization responds |
| Story/response statistics are not monitored | Complaint statistics are monitored nationally |
| No power to force specific outcomes | May result in a clear action plan |
| Focus on learning and improvement | Focus on fault and accountability, as well as learning |
Why does the Care Opinion Canada program have this policy?
The mission of the Care Opinion Canada program is for “people to be able to share their experiences of health and care in ways which are safe, simple, and lead to learning and change”. Experiences of health and care may include a wide range of experiences, such as clinical, administrative or relational experiences, and may also include the experience of a formal complaint process.
In principle, we believe that Care Opinion is a way to hear about experiences of care that services and the public would not otherwise hear. Not every person feels comfortable raising a formal complaint and may wish to share anonymously. Alternatively, people may have criticisms about their care that they want the service provider to hear and respond to, but they aren't deemed serious enough to engage in a lengthy process. Research suggests that important motivations for storytellers posting care experiences online are "informing other patients" and "improving standards of care". A formal complaint on the other hand is a way to focus on accountability and responsibility. Care Opinion believes both processes are important, but independent.