IS THERE A DIFFERENT WAY FOLLOWING HARM IN HEALTH CARE ?
Linley Anne Donaldson
I have been the successful recipient of the National Mediation Conference scholarship and I
will outline the link between the dollars provided and the project that I will undertake to
engage industries partners in a collaborative, quantitative research project.
This presentation will highlight the issues across the medico-legal professional groups and
the challenges for each of these groups in following a mediation pathway.
It has always concerned me that complaints within the health industry has been managed in
an adversarial win lose environment which is unsatisfactory for both the consumer and
provider as there is not the opportunity for an open communication in an environment of trust
or respect. I am well aware that this environment of mistrust is detrimental to the professional
relationship and impacts the emotional well being of both health professional and consumers
who take away from the event, underlying grief, resentment and emotional stress.
On reflection, I can see that policy directives and legislation do not change the long
held patterns of behavior nor professional cultures. This commenced a journey of
discovery for me in a desire to support the development of a constructive pathway to
change the way health complaints are addressed and resolved. I have recognised,
that the government can put legislation and policy structures in place to direct
change, however, this is the first step in a long journey of change which to be
successful requires engagement and commitment from industries partners.
As a result, I commence a process of enquiry with health professionals, lawyers and insurers
to understand the issues and factors that prevent the shift from a win lose adversarial /
litigation framework to a win-win mediated framework. It has become apparent through this
process of discovery that Insurers, Lawyers and Health professionals are reticent to expose
vulnerability in what they perceived to be a volatile and potentially litigious environment
where there are no clear boundaries. Coupled with this, is the provider’s lack of knowledge,
skills and confidence as a key party in a mediated process.
In communication with health provider stakeholders, I am very aware that complaints,
grievances and potentially litigation claims, negatively impact on providers at a practical dayto-day level and emotional personal level. The impacts are managed in various ways and
probably the most frequent coping style is for practitioners to withdraw and set up barriers to
open effective communication with their patients / users of service. This compounds what is
a potentially fragile situation requiring more not less, effective communication to clarify facts
and dispel any misunderstanding or misperception of what has or has not transpired.
In this process of discovering, I have commenced preliminary discussions with some key
stakeholders who have expressed an interest to participate in a collaborative, qualitative
research project to assist them better understanding the way forward in the development of a
mediation framework for resolving complaints. The framework will specifically focus on
medical legal issues and the mapping of the mediation model that would be acceptable to
consumer/plaintiff and provider/defendant groups.
Abstract of a presentation to a conference
TTILE :
IS THERE A DIFFERENT WAY FOLLOWING HARM IN HEALTH CARE ?
Author :
Linley Anne Donaldson
I have been the successful recipient of the National Mediation Conference scholarship and I
will outline the link between the dollars provided and the project that I will undertake to
engage industries partners in a collaborative, quantitative research project.
This presentation will highlight the issues across the medico-legal professional groups and the
challenges for each of these groups in following a mediation pathway.
It has always concerned me that complaints within the health industry has been managed in an adversarial win
lose environment which is unsatisfactory for both the consumer and provider as there is not the opportunity for an
open communication in an environment of trust or respect. I am well aware that this environment of mistrust is
detrimental to the professional relationship and impacts the emotional well being of both health professional and
consumers who take away from the event, underlying grief, resentment and emotional stress.
On reflection, I can see that policy directives and legislation do not change the long held
patterns of behavior nor professional cultures. This commenced a journey of discovery for
me in a desire to support the development of a constructive pathway to change the way health
complaints are addressed and resolved. I have recognised, that the government can put
legislation and policy structures in place to direct change, however, this is the first step in a
long journey of change which to be successful requires engagement and commitment from
industries partners.
As a result, I commence a process of enquiry with health professionals, lawyers and insurers
to understand the issues and factors that prevent the shift from a win lose adversarial /
litigation framework to a win-win mediated framework. It has become apparent through this
process of discovery that Insurers, Lawyers and Health professionals are reticent to expose
vulnerability in what they perceived to be a volatile and potentially litigious environment
where there are no clear boundaries. Coupled with this, is the provider’s lack of knowledge,
skills and confidence as a key party in a mediated process.
In communication with health provider stakeholders, I am very aware that complaints,
grievances and potentially litigation claims, negatively impact on providers at a practical dayto-day level and emotional personal level. The impacts are managed in various ways and
probably the most frequent coping style is for practitioners to withdraw and set up barriers to
open effective communication with their patients / users of service. This compounds what is
a potentially fragile situation requiring more not less, effective communication to clarify facts
and dispel any misunderstanding or misperception of what has or has not transpired.
In this process of discovering, I have commenced preliminary discussions with some key
stakeholders who have expressed an interest to participate in a collaborative, qualitative
research project to assist them better understanding the way forward in the development of a
mediation framework for resolving complaints. The framework will specifically focus on
medical legal issues and the mapping of the mediation model that would be acceptable to
consumer/plaintiff and provider/defendant groups.