We manage feedback a little differently at Care Opinion and understand that you may have questions. If you click on a question below, it will take you down to our answer.
If you question isn't there, you are always welcome to ask us via email to info@careopinion.org.au.
Why do I need to create an account?
Why do you ask for my age range, location (postcode) and email address?
How do you maintain my privacy?
Can I make changes to my story after I have submitted it?
What happens to my story after I have submitted it?
Can I get into trouble by sharing my story?
Are there any stories you don't publish?
What is a story?
At Care Opinion, a story is feedback in a narrative form, a brief description of an experience of care with a service provider that includes what happened, whether it was good or could be improved, and how the person felt about that experience.
Stories are shared so that the people receiving care and their families, friends and carers can commend great care while suggesting improvements to service delivery based on their personal experience.
Who is a storyteller?
On Care Opinion, a storyteller is a person who has submitted the story. That may be the person who received the care, such as a patient, client, resident or consumer, or it may be their friend, carer or relative. Staff members and advocates are also allowed to share a story on behalf of another person, as long as that person consents to their story being shared.
Why do I need to create an account?
We ask you to create an account so that you can:
- access your story (we will email you a link to it once it’s been published)
- post a response back to the service provider if they respond to your story
- if the service provider responds to your story, you can mark it as being helpful or unhelpful
- withdraw your story if you choose to
- share the link to your story with other people.
We also communicate with you via the email address you provide when creating your account to send you the link to your story once it’s been published.
Why do you ask for my age range, location (postcode) and email address?
All personal information you provide is asked for a specific reason, as follows:
Age range – this is so we know to take extra care when moderating stories if the storyteller is under the age of 18 years old.
Location (postcode) – our system uses this information to populate suggested service providers your story may be about. Some service provides have the same or similar names to other providers, such as ones operating in different states within Australia (e.g. Armadale Health Service in WA and Armidale Community Health Service in NSW). For this reason, our moderators use your location to make sure your story has been linked to the correct service provider.
Email address - it is very important that Care Opinion moderators have a means of contacting you. The main reasons we may be in touch are:
- To confirm your story has been submitted successfully (automated email)
- If our moderators have questions or require clarification before they are able to publish your story
- To let you know when your story has been published and provide you with a direct link to it (automated email)
- To let you know if/when the service provider has posted a response to you (automated email).
You are wise to be careful about giving out your email address and postcode and we will treat both with respect. Care Opinion will never give, sell or trade your personal information to anyone, under any circumstance.
How do you maintain my privacy?
Care Opinion Australia is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Our moderation principles are carefully followed to protect the anonymity of our storytellers and the management of your data is governed by our privacy policy. In this policy, we cover:
- Information we may collect from you
- How we store and may transfer your personal data
- Security processes
- Other uses we may make of the information
- Cookies
- Links to other websites
- Your rights
- Communications with you
- Changes to our privacy policy
- Your acceptance of these terms
- Contact
We encourage you to read these documents on our website as follows:
Can I make changes to my story after I have submitted it?
After you have submitted your story to the Care Opinion platform, you will not have access to make changes directly. However, our moderators are always happy to support you to make changes to your story either directly or on your behalf. Simply email info@careopinion.org.au and let them know the email address and/or username you used to submit your story and they will work with you to get it done.
What happens to my story after I have submitted it?
Once you have submitted your story to Care Opinion, it comes through to our moderation queue. Our moderation team process stories in the order in which they are submitted during business hours in Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).
You can read more about moderation through the following pages on the website:
How long will it take to publish my story?
The time taken to publish your story is dependent on a number of factors, such as:
- the number of stories in the moderation queue
- the complexity of the story and moderation required
- if we require any clarification from you before we can publish your story
- if we require any clarification from the service provider before we can publish your story (e.g. an exact area of a hospital to link your story to).
We endeavour to process stories as soon as possible. If we expect there to be a delay, we will contact you via email to let you know.
Can I withdraw my story?
If you change your mind about a story you have submitted to the platform, you can withdraw it before or after it has been published and/or responded to. To do this, you will need to login to the platform using the email address and password you entered when sharing your story.
Once you have logged in:
- Navigate to the top-right hand corner of the webpage
- Underneath your username, click on the words ‘Your stories’
- Click on the name of the story you shared then on that page, click on the words ‘Withdraw your story’ which will be in a yellow box to the right-hand side of the story content.
We encourage you to please share the reason for withdrawing your story as this helps our moderators to understand any concerns storytellers have regarding the storytelling experience.
If you have submitted a story and then want to make changes to it, please let our moderators know at moderators@careopinion.org.au as they can help you with that without you needing to withdraw and resubmit your story.
It is important to note that withdrawing a story is your decision alone. You should not be asked to withdraw your story at any point during or after the storytelling process, even if your concerns have been resolved.
If your concerns have been resolved, we encourage you to either mark the response provided by the service as ‘helpful’ and/or post your own response so they know you are satisfied with the outcome of your story.
Leaving stories on the platform enables other people to learn from your experience. It enables consumers to understand what others have experienced with the provider and how the provider responds to feedback, and staff to see experience of care through the consumer’s eyes.
If you have been approached and asked to withdraw your story, please be assured that you are not required to do so. If you have any concerns, please contact Care Opinion at info@careopinion.org.au or by phoning 1300 662 996.
Can I get into trouble by sharing my story?
Under the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights, you have the right to:
- Provide feedback or make a complaint without it affecting the way you are treated.
- Have your concerns addressed in a transparent and timely way.
- Share your experience and participate to improve the quality of care and health services.
In terms of defamation, Care Opinion’s moderation principles and guidelines play an important part in keeping everybody safe in the storytelling process. This is especially important when stories are negative or read as a complaint.
In theses stories, Care Opinion moderators do their best to de-identify the storyteller and/or the person who received the care from the story. This will include names, genders, specific ages and specific times and dates of care.
Care Opinion will also de-identify staff members where the care experience was not positive. This involves removing their names, genders, specific dates and times of care and physical descriptions of the individual(s). Instead, they are identified by their role within the organisation (nurse, cleaner, reception staff etc.).
Where a story is recounting a positive experience, Care Opinion will include staff members’ first names only. If you only know the staff member’s surname, that is ok. Our moderators will do their best to determine the staff members’ first names by liaising with the service provider.
As Care Opinion is designed to be an anonymous platform through which consumers can share their stories, we do not ever include the first names of storytellers and/or the person who received the care, even if the experience was positive.
You can read our Terms and Conditions here.
Are there any stories you don't publish?
Every story is moderated to ensure that they meet our moderation principles and to keep everyone safe. It is very important to us to maintain the authenticity of stories, and this is kept in front of mind while moderating your story.
Of the few stories that are not published, they are made up of:
- very critical postings where we cannot verify that the email address is correct;
- some postings where the incident forms part of legal proceedings;
- postings that are confusing, extremely long or about events that occurred more than 3 years ago; and/or
- postings that are made to reopen a formal complaint that had been investigated by AHPRA or other formal health complaints organisations as this is beyond our remit.
Do you work for service providers or the government??
Care Opinion is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that does not receive any government funding. We are a neutral party that helps to facilitate conversations between storytellers and service providers.
Like lots of websites, Care Opinion's basic service is free: the public can add stories, search the site and is free of advertising. Service providers who want to access support from our staff, detailed reporting, unlimited email alerts and other tools that help busy staff make the most of user feedback can take out a subscription.
Since Care Opinion is run on a not-for-profit basis, profits are redirected back to improving the service we offer and not to shareholders or the government.