Clinical complaints: a means of improving quality of care.

Abstract

Objectives-To establish the reasons for clinical complaints, complainants' feelings about the original incident, and their motivation in complaining. Design-Postal questionnaire survey.

Association between physicians’ communicative behaviors and judges’ decisions in lawsuits on negligent care

“…The concern here is whether there is a difference between the quality of medical disputes and litigated cases. Previous studies have shown that, in most cases, the initial incident did not contribute to a decision to take legal action, but rather the secondary problems in response to the incident precipitated litigation [27,28]. Improper responses to a medical dispute include unclear or insufficiently informative explanations [28] and a lack of openness or willingness to explain [27].…”

Not another Complaint!

“…Bark et al [4], concluded that "complaints arose from serious incidents, generally a clinical problem combined with staff insensitivity and poor communication", showing that a lot of these complaints stem from a communication and a clinical issue.…”

“…The complaints can focus on a diverse set of problems, from car parking to medical negligence. Patients lodge complaints for a variety of reasons from resolving dissatisfaction, to create change, or to prevent future issues [4,5]. One of the reasons for looking at complaints and learning from them is to allow for trainees to prevent and or reduce their future associated patient complaints when they take up responsibility as a consultant.…”

For What Reasons Do Patients File a Complaint? A Retrospective Study on Patient Rights Units’ Registries

“…Rather, the most frequent complaints in Turkey and in the world are usually linked to expectations related to human dignity, such as being treated in a respectable manner and being properly informed. In the literature, countries with different healthcare systems, such as the USA (20,21), Singapore (6,7,15), the UK (14,22,23), and Australia (9,16), all seem to have the same three most frequent complaints. Studies conducted in 2007 in a heart hospital in Tehran (24), in an education hospital of Taiwan in 2010 (25) and in four large state hospitals in Canada (5) in 2005, showed that the primary complaint was "humanitarian/respectable approach and communication problems".…”