Sandy Ho has been handling patients' complaints, comments and requests for assistance in her role as Hospital Manager (Patient Relations) at Kwong Wah Hospital (KWH) for the past 13 years.

In fact, as the only full-time patient relations officer at KWH, she has to deal with more than 300 complaints a year. Yet, despite the heavy workload, she is committed to ensuring that every patient who contacts her receives the highest standard of service.

Ms Ho believes that empathy is one of the most valuable qualities in her work. While helping patients as much as possible, she also manages to resolve the issues they raise without compromising either the professional standards of her colleagues or the policies of the Hospital. What's more, she reflects the concerns of patients, thereby contributing to its efforts to enhance the quality of its services and risk management.

Apart from her daily patient relations duties, Ms Ho has devised a method to streamline the process for handling investigations. This has considerably eased the workload of her frontline colleagues. She is also active in training both her front-line and management colleagues in ways to handle complaints and de-escalate conflicts. More than 400 of them have attended her regular workshops since she began to conduct them in 2004.

Although Ms Ho is the only person who specialises in handling patient relations issues at KWH, she emphasises that she does not work alone. Indeed, she can count on the understanding, support and trust of her colleagues in every rank. "If a colleague is the subject of a complaint, he or she will fully understand my role and endeavour to provide me with all the relevant information. The management also gives me a great deal of leeway about how I handle cases. I am very thankful to all of them."

Sometimes, Ms Ho has to deal with very angry and even hysterical patients and relatives. How does she cope with such enormous pressure? "Fortunately, I know how to detach myself mentally from the situation. When a patient uses foul language, I realise that I don't need to get angry in return. I don't take it personally. Also, I don't mentally bring my work problems home at the end of the day. I have a very good family and I just focus on my children. I leave any outstanding difficulties in my job until another day."

Ms Ho has some words of advice for all her colleagues in the HA. "Most patients are reasonable. There's no need to get upset because of a few exceptions. Just focus on the fact that our work enables us to help other people a great deal." This must be the reason why Ms Ho is so motivated and hardworking in her own job!

	KWH management staff present Ms Ho (fifth from right) with a "Champion of Justice" certificate signed by all of them in recognition of her contributions.