The Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO) received complaints in relation to a mental health facility in Queensland. The complaints related to concerns about patient care including allegations of patient assaults, improper use of seclusion and inappropriate medication administration.

Wider learnings and recommendations for service improvements

The investigation identified opportunities for improvement and proposed recommendations relating to:

• Trend analysis of complaints and incidents with provision of feedback to staff to further facilitate shared learnings.
• Improvements to visitor spaces, seclusion and medication rooms at the facility.
• Continued administration of surveys and development of action plans to assess and monitor the ongoing social climate of the facility.
• Review and update of an outdated medication procedure and implementation of a local work instruction for managing escalating consumer behaviour and the use of ‘when required’ medications.
• Review of the implementation of training recommendations for staff arising from a particular clinical incident.

Read the snapshot report (PDF 123KB)