Setting up a patient complaint system in the national primary healthcare network in Lebanon (2016–2020): Lessons for Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

Abstract

Over the past decade there has been a renewed global commitment towards building people-centred healthcare systems and enhancing the capture of patient complaints. Literature from Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) on patient complaints is sparse. In 2016, the Primary Healthcare (PHC) Department at the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon, developed a full grievance (complaint or inquiry) redress system. This paper aims to describe the development of the national grievance handling system and analyse 5 years' worth of grievance data (2016-2020). The study entailed a retrospective analysis of grievances relating to the care of patients treated in 237 Primary Health Centres in the national PHC network in Lebanon, lodged through

Bridging the Gap in Primary Healthcare: Identifying Gaps and Recommendations to Enhancing the Utilization of PHC Services in Lebanon: A Qualitative Study

“…Another emerging domain was the relationships domain, being the main reasons of the complaints [17]. This is similar to the findings of our study, where participants reported that communication and staff attitudes were one of the main barriers when seeking PHC services as it made receiving the service challenging even when they had the knowledge and the means to seek the service.…”

“…These were also evident in our study and were reported by both beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries when discussing PHC services and highlights the need to addressing these misconceptions to the communities and the need to tackle service delivery inside PHCCs that heightens these misconceptions and elicit discrimination inside PHCCs. Furthermore, the PHC department at the MoPH conducted a retrospective analysis of grievances registered from 237 PHCCs relating to the care of patients, lodged through the central grievance uptakes channels on a 5-years period [17]. The main complaint subcategory of management domain was recourses (28%) with a notable emphasis on medication stockouts, followed by finance and billing (16%) due to the absence of standardized protocols and procedures, such as fee schedules, which vary between governmental and non-governmental PHC ownerships [17].…”

“…Furthermore, the PHC department at the MoPH conducted a retrospective analysis of grievances registered from 237 PHCCs relating to the care of patients, lodged through the central grievance uptakes channels on a 5-years period [17]. The main complaint subcategory of management domain was recourses (28%) with a notable emphasis on medication stockouts, followed by finance and billing (16%) due to the absence of standardized protocols and procedures, such as fee schedules, which vary between governmental and non-governmental PHC ownerships [17]. This was reflected in our studies as participants recommended unifying PHC fees across all the PHCCs within the PHCN.…”