Study of patient complaints reported over 30 months at a large heart centre in Tehran

Abstract

Objectives To determine the rate and nature of complaints and the outcomes of the complaint management at a large heart centre in Tehran. Results A total of 1642 (5.2 per 1000) complaints were received, of which 1457 (4.64 per 1000) were verbal, and 185 (0.56 per 1000) were in written format. 34.7% of the complaints were related to admission procedures, followed by 34.1% communication, 13.8% waiting time, 6.8% delay and 4.1% ignoring the standards of clinical care. Over 90% of complaints were resolved by explanation or verbal apology, 2.1% of them led to a change in the process or procedure, and 4.8% were deemed disapproved claims. Conclusions The majority of patient complaints in Tehran Heart Centre are related to admission procedures or communication; most of them are verbal and resolved in the early stage as an explanation or apology. The hospital complaint management system has the potential to resolve the majority of such complaints in an early stage.

The Complaints of Patients and Their Relatives About Emergency Service

“…They also suggest that for most complainants, having an explanation is more important than an apology. The fact that almost 90% of all verbal complaints were resolved through explanation is consistent with other study findings (7,9,19).…”

“…This study found that about 0.02% of patients (inpatients or outpatients) admitted at Emergency Department of Gaziantep University who reported their dissatisfaction made a formal written complaint regarding the care they received, and the rate of formal written complaints was 0.02 per 1000. This is lower than the rate of dissatisfaction (0.56 per 1000), and not comparable with rates of formal complaints (1.7-2.1%), (0.26-2.7 per 1000) reported in other studies (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). All of the patients were admitted due to simple complaints such as gastroenteritis, weakness, stomach.…”

“…One of the most important studies related to patient complaints in the literature was reported by Moghadam et al (9). In that study, a total of 1642 (5.2 per 1000) complaints were received, of which 1457 were verbal, and 185 (0.56 per 1000) were in written format.…”

“…This shows that using different methods may result in a different rate of dissatisfaction. In study constructed in Iran, the authors did not review patient case notes and there was no general incident reporting system (9). They only reviewed the verbal and written complaints including dissatisfactions reported to the complaint management office.…”

“…This subject is considered a priority and has been well studied in many modern health systems, including the USA, the UK and Australia (5)(6)(7)(8). However, this issue has not yet been well documented in developing countries (9). Even within a given discipline, however, some physicians, such as obstetricians and surgeons, are sued more often than others (10).…”