Ombudsman des patients | |
Office overview | |
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Formed | 15 December 2015 [1] |
Type | Ombudsman |
Jurisdiction | Public hospitals, long-term care homes, and home and community care coordinated by the Local Health Integration Networks |
Headquarters | 393 University Ave., Suite 1801, Toronto, Ontario |
Motto | "Every experience matters" [2] |
Office executives |
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Parent Office | Ontario Health (agency) |
Key document | |
Website | www |
The Patient Ombudsman (French : Ombudsman des patients) is an ombudsman office which acts as a neutral body of last resort for complaints about the healthcare system in Ontario, Canada. The Patient Ombudsman has jurisdiction over public hospitals and long-term care homes, as well as home and community care coordinated by the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
The position was created in 2015 through amendments to the Excellent Care for All Act . [3]
In the office's first year, it received 2,000 complaints. The bulk of complaints were about Ontario's hospitals. [4] [5] [6] The office received 2,300 complaints in its second year of operations.
In 2023 the mandate of the Patient Ombudsman was expanded to include Community Surgical and Diagnostic Centres. [7] [8]
Unlike the Ontario Ombudsman, the Patient Ombudsman is not an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario; The Patient Ombudsman's office was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health's advisory agency Health Quality Ontario. [9] When Health Quality Ontario was transferred to the new agency Ontario Health, [10] the patient ombudsman went with it.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Ombudsmen Cathy Fooks released a series of recommendations to deal with the pandemic in long-term care homes, such as better whistleblower protections, communications and visitation systems. [11]
The recommendations were:
The patient ombudsman is not an independent officer of the legislature, however. It falls under Health Quality Ontario — a government agency that monitors quality in health care and provides advice to government and health care providers.