Accountability Strategies
We believe in the power of accountability. Even where none of these pathways is a fit, healing can still happen.
Many healing modalities, spaces and people exist & are here to support clients who are on an accountability journey.
Elephant Circle is happy to help you help your clients find community connections, therapy, somatic healers, storytelling opportunities, and more.
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Accountability Options
Ocr complaints
Can: Provide an opportunity to tell their story and ask for specific resolution. Put on record systemic problems, make a facility aware that they are being investigated.
Cannot: provide money damanges. Note that if a complaint is filed more than 180 days after the violation, it will likely be closed but the record of the complaint remains. Cannot require firing
patient relations complaints
Facilities have internal complaints portals- and they are designed to reduce the risk of litigation for the hospital.
Can: Notify the hospital of the harm. In some (very rare) cases, facilities will offer an apology or waive the costs of medical bills.
Cannot: Yield structural or policy change, a judicial verdict or damages.
Note: Interactions w/ patient relations can be triggering & cause
their own harm, as they are designed to defend the facility.
media + communications campaigns
Can: Generate public pressure & create opportunities for conversation with the hospital. Allow for ownership and control over storytelling. Not limited in what resolution can be asked for.
Cannot: Guarantee any response from the hospital- no guarantee that a story will be picked up or go viral.
Administrative complaints
Ombudsmen offices, State and County Departments of Health & local Attorney General’s Offices have complaint portals
Can: Provide an independent, external, more neutral investigation process. Can sometimes sanction individual providers or require facilities to change policies/behavior
Cannot: provide money damanges
litigation (lawsuits)
Can: Provide money damages. Create precedent that can be helpful to others who are seeking accountability for the same/similar harms in the future. Can deter the hospital from doing the same thing to someone else. Be a way to generate public/media awareness.
Cannot: Force an apology or structural change beyond the individual’s experiece.
medical board complaints
Can: Create a record of the harm, make it easier for future people who bring complaints to have them considered/investigated.
Cannot: Force an apology, award damages, yield a judicial verdict, create any policy change at the facility or state level.
Note: These can be retraumatizing, and, because the board is designed to protect providers, often does not result in accountability or change.
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