Patient Voice by ASF mdash standalone service
You do not need to be accredited. You do not even need to be an ASF member. You need only to want to hear the truth mdash from a body the patient trusts because it is not the hospital.
Why hospital feedback fails
Every hospital has a feedback form. Patients fill it in carefully mdash because the hospital that treated them will read it, and they may need that hospital again. So the form says ldquoeverything was fine.rdquo The real story goes to Facebook. Management learns about the problem from a viral post two days later.
The hospitalrsquos own form goes into a black hole. The anger goes public. Neither outcome helps the next patient.
The fix is structural, not technical. Patients speak honestly when the listener is not the hospital. That listener is ASF.
International research (Reader, Gillespie amp Roberts BMJ Quality amp Safety ) shows that a structured, independent complaint system is the single most reliable early-warning signal for patient safety problems.
Vanderbilt University data: ~% of doctors generate ~% of patient complaints mdash and those complaints predict malpractice risk (Hickson et al., JAMA ).
An unanswered complaint is a lost lesson. A neutral intermediary protects patient and hospital alike.
The mechanism
We place a QR code in your wards, reception and discharge papers. A patient scans it and submits mdash complaint, praise, question, idea. Anonymity is allowed. The message goes directly to ASF. It never passes through the hospital.
ASF acknowledges in writing within working days and responds substantively within more. We take neither the hospitalrsquos side nor the patientrsquos. We mediate mdash including feedback that first appeared on social media mdash and we close every case in writing.
The hospital receives a monthly Patient Voice report: themes, severity coding, praise passed to the team by name, and the issues that need fixing mdash analysed with an internationally validated complaint taxonomy, comparable month to month.
Our four governing principles
Independence bull Impartiality bull Informality bull Confidentiality
ASF holds no stake in any outcome. We have no disciplinary role over the facility. We are not the hospitalrsquos agent and we are not the patientrsquos advocate mdash we are the neutral facilitator between them. These four principles are drawn from international ombuds practice (International Ombuds Association Standards of Practice) and are the governance spine of this service. A breach of any one of them destroys the trust the service depends on.
Beyond the QR code
We recruit, train and convene a council of your real patients, with a hospital representative at the table and ASF facilitating. The council meets quarterly, reviews the Patient Voice reports, proposes improvements, and publishes what changed.
Patient representatives are trained for the role mdash how to read a quality report, how to run a meeting, how to raise a concern formally. An untrained council is a decoration. A trained one changes things.
When a patient writes something angry on Facebook, ASF receives it first. We contact the patient, verify the facts, mediate with the facility, and close the case in writing. When a patient writes something exceptional, we verify it and make sure the team member it names hears it mdash by name, in the monthly report.
Meets quarterly bull reviews the Patient Voice report bull proposes one improvement per cycle bull documents the outcome bull publishes an annual patient-voice summary
Recruitment of council members bull training curriculum bull facilitation of every meeting bull written minutes bull neutral mediation between sessions
One representative at each quarterly meeting bull written responses to council proposals within days bull access to relevant data for the councilrsquos review
Proven, not proposed
This is a running system, not a concept. Patient councils convened under this model meet regularly in Georgian clinics mdash agendas, education sessions, initiatives and outcomes are published openly at pacienti.ge. Meetings and results are documented in public nothing is taken on faith. What runs in Georgia today is the model we offer internationally.
The full service
nbsp QR-code intake installed in your facility
nbsp Direct-to-ASF channel mdash anonymity permitted
nbsp Written acknowledgement within working days
nbsp Substantive written response within more
nbsp Neutral mediation of every complaint
nbsp Social-media monitoring amp mediation included
nbsp Verified praise delivered to named staff
nbsp Monthly coded Patient Voice report
nbsp Internationally validated complaint taxonomy
nbsp Trained, ASF-convened patient council (quarterly)
nbsp Annual public patient-voice summary
The upgrade path
If you later choose accreditation, your council, your complaint data and your full history come with you. Nothing restarts. A hospital that runs Patient Voice for months is already halfway inside the accreditation system mdash with a trained council, a coded complaint archive, and a monthly quality-report habit already established.
Fixed monthly fee mdash a fraction of full membership.
Quote within hours. No obligation, no sales call.
Common questions
No. Patient Voice is a standalone service available to any healthcare facility mdash accredited or not, ASF member or not.
No. All feedback goes directly to ASF. The hospital receives a monthly coded report, not raw submissions. Anonymity is preserved if the patient requests it.
Safety-critical complaints are escalated immediately, outside the standard timeline. ASF may refer to the relevant national regulator or ombudsman. Confidentiality yields to a duty to prevent serious harm.
A hospital-run form is read by the hospital mdash patients know this and self-censor. Patient Voice goes to a neutral third party, which is why patients use it honestly. Every submission receives a written response.
Write to us. We reply within working days. Quote within hours.
Paris — 32, Bd de Rochechouart, 75018
Geneva — 23 Rue des Eaux-Vives, 1207
Tbilisi — 3 Betlemi Rise, 0105
info@accreditation.ge
