Ombuds service

Compliment, complaint, suggestion or remark? Contact our ombuds service.

All hospital staff strive to provide you and your family with the best possible reception, care and support during your stay in the hospital. Despite our commitment and efforts, it is possible that you may not be fully satisfied with certain aspects of the treatment or your stay.

For compliments, complaints or suggestions, it is best in the first instance to contact the person involved or the head nurse of the department concerned. On the evaluation form, you can indicate which aspects of the care you found good or less satisfactory.

If you explicitly wish to express a compliment, suggestion, remark, complaint or a medical/patient safety incident*, you can do so via the ombuds service, which is responsible for handling and registering these matters.

*A (medical) incident is an unintentional event in the care process that has led, could have led or may still lead to harm for the patient.

How can you reach the ombuds service?

You can reach us on 057 35 66 42 or at ombudsdienst@yperman.net, from Monday to Friday (except Wednesday afternoons) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Written complaints are addressed to the Office of the Ombudsman:
Jan Yperman Hospital
Ombuds service
Briekestraat 12, 8900 Ieper

Please state the following information clearly in your email and in your letter:

your name
patient’s name and date of birth
your phone number
a clear description of the complaint

What can you contact us for?

You can contact us with your story, complaint, incident, remark or suggestion. We listen in complete confidence and work together with you to find an appropriate response to your questions.

Sometimes a listening ear is sufficient; in other situations, further intervention may be desirable.

In addition, you can also contact the ombuds service for:

questions about patient rights
cases of loss or damage
access to or a copy of your patient file (or that of a deceased patient)

How do we handle a patient safety incident?

After a non-anonymous report of an incident, the reporter is contacted to better understand the context of the report.

Afterwards, the situation is examined together with the staff member and/or department to determine what happened in that specific case. If possible, improvement actions are initiated for that situation or more broadly within the organisation.

If the reporter wishes, this information can be communicated by phone or in writing.

We listen to your story, complaint, incident, remark or suggestion in complete confidence. Together, we look at how we can provide an answer to your questions. Sometimes a listening ear is sufficient; in other situations, an intervention may be desirable.

Open communication about an incident
Jan Yperman Hospital attaches great importance to transparent, prompt and open communication with the patient or their relatives.
This also applies when an incident has occurred causing harm to the patient. In the case of very serious incidents (often involving severe harm), we use an “open disclosure” process.
- We offer our sincere apologies that the care did not proceed as we had intended.
- The treating physician explains what happened.
- If the patient or relatives wish, the ombuds service is involved.
- We assemble a team of involved staff, doctors and responsible management to analyse the incident.
- We discuss how such situations can be prevented in the future.
The results of this analysis are discussed with the patient and/or relatives (possibly with the support of the ombuds service). We only conclude the procedure once the patient and/or relatives agree.
Role of the ombuds service
The ombuds service is primarily a mediation service, where we consider all parties involved in the situation. We prefer to describe this as multi-partial rather than neutral or impartial.
Reporting and follow-up
The annual report of the ombuds service is provided to the hospital management and the Flemish Ombudsman. This report contains statistical data on complaints and recommendations, of course anonymised. Quick wins are identified in a timely manner so that immediate action can be taken. For this purpose, close cooperation is maintained with the quality department.
What if no solution is found?
If it is not possible to reach a solution, we can inform you about possible alternatives.

Appointing a trusted person

If you wish to appoint a trusted person to assist you and want this person to have access to your file, this can be done using this document. The document may be sent to ombudsdienst@yperman.net. We will take the necessary steps to grant access.

More information about access to a child’s medical record.