BELLINGHAM — Last month, the World Health Organization created its first Patient Safety Rights Charter. The document entitles patients to “timely, effective and appropriate care,” safe practices, and qualified doctors, among other rights.
But an international body doesn’t have time to deal with each individual complaint. So what can you do locally in Washington state if you are having some kind of an issue with a health care provider that you’ve been unable to resolve on your own?
BBB complaints against a health care provider
The Better Business Bureau is one option. The majority of Medicare-enrolled hospitals in the U.S. are either non-profits or government owned. But you can still file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau if you had a bad experience with your health care provider.
Like any other business, you can file a complaint against a for-profit health care provider with the BBB. Just go to the complaints page on the BBB website, or the individual business’s page. You can also call the bureau’s Great West & Pacific branch at (208) 342-4649.
Complaints are typically passed on to the business within two days, and the BBB asks businesses to respond within two weeks.
- What if your health care provider is a non-profit?
The BBB does accept complaints against non-profits. So if you’re health care provider is a non-profit, you can still file a complaint.
- What if it’s government-owned?
The BBB’s submission guidelines don’t allow complaints against government agencies in most cases. The one exception is if the agency offers “a commercial service establishing a buyer-seller relationship.” It would seem that hospitals and doctors office would fall under that category. The BBB allows complaints on its pages for Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington Medical Center, which are both state-owned.
Washington state resources for complaints
The BBB sends complaints directly to businesses, meaning they can choose whether or not to address them. If you want to file a complaint to a regulatory body, Washington has a few options. The Washington State Department of Health maintains a webpage where you can file a complaint against a health care provider or facility. For complaints against an individual doctor, you’ll have to go through the Washington Medical Commission.
