Complaints Policy

Purpose

At Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, we value your feedback and take your complaints seriously. The objective of this document is to set out our policy and procedures when receiving complaints from external stakeholders to ensure complaints are addressed in a timely, fair and consistent manner. We aim to resolve complaints, whenever possible, to your satisfaction and use complaints to improve our programs, operations and performance.

Scope

This policy applies to complaints from external stakeholders.

Complaints reported under this policy that fall under other policies will be dealt with under those specific policies. For example:

• Complaints about suspected or known illegal and inappropriate conduct that affects others (e.g., the SCI community, the general public) will be handled under Praxis’ Whistleblower Policy.
• Privacy concerns or complaints will be handled under Praxis’ Privacy Policy.

What is a Complaint?

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction with Praxis, our work, our employees or representatives.
A complaint does not include feedback on matters unrelated to Praxis, or a frivolous or vexatious complaint.

Procedures for Making a Complaint

When to Report?

Please report your complaint as soon as possible. This allows your complaint to be investigated and addressed promptly.

Who to Report to?

Level 1: We recognize that many problems will be raised and resolved easily and quickly by speaking to your primary contact at Praxis. If you are unable to resolve the issue informally, please write to your primary contact and/or their supervisor so that they have an opportunity to resolve the matter.

Level 2: If you are not satisfied with the response to the complaint or you have no primary contact at Praxis, please report your complaint via email to feedback@praxisinstitute.org, or mail (or other means of delivery) to Feedback, Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, 6400-818 West 10^th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9, Canada.

What to Report?

In your communication, please outline the details of your complaint, the consequences as a result and the resolution you are seeking. Where applicable, please state details about previously raising this concern with a Praxis employee/representative.

Investigation and Follow-Up Procedures

We aim to resolve all complaints quickly and appropriately (for example, with a corrective action, an explanation, an apology, or information on action taken), and, where possible, confidentially.

We will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 7 business days and will attempt to resolve the matter within 20 business days. However, inevitably some issues may take longer to resolve or cannot be handled directly and consequently, the response time may be longer.

We may seek further information from you or the Praxis employee/representative involved in the complaint in order to appropriately resolve the complaint.

Anonymous complaints will be investigated to the best of our abilities; however, a proper investigation may not be possible if we cannot get further information from you.

Reporting

All level 2 complaints will be reported to a Senior Management Team member and brought to the attention of the CEO. These complaints will also be logged in a database to identify potential trends. A summary of these complaints (brief description and resolution) will be reported at least annually to the Audit and Finance Committee.