Hospital Management of Patient Funds
At the December 2006 program meeting advocates raised the issue of two recent incidents in psychiatric facilities where patients’ money had been stolen. In one facility, the amount of money stolen was significant as funds had been misappropriated from patient accounts over a long period of time. In the other facility, following press reports of this incident, the hospital decided of its own accord to conduct a forensic audit, which subsequently uncovered theft from patient accounts.
As a group, we discussed how patient advocates could best address this issue across the facilities to ensure that patient finances were protected and that hospitals had appropriate policies, procedures and oversight in place. Since 9 of the 10 hospitals where we provide service have been divested from provincial government control, there is no longer a single operating policy across sites. In many respects, the PPAO remains the one continuing on-site link across the facilities.
We determined that the best approach was to draft a memo outlining issues and concerns, including the safeguarding of patients’ personal property, which on-site advocates could share with facility administrators. The PPAO also wrote to the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) to alert them to the issues raised by our office which could impact other facilities where there is oversight of patient finances. We received a favourable response from the OHA.
This issue continues to be an ongoing subject of advocacy activity.
Letter to PPAO Patient Advocates RE: Management of Client
Funds and Property by Hospitals - Dec 22, 2006
