Background
Introduction
Complainants' dissatisfaction as motive for the study
Patients' motives and expectations
Research questions
Methods
Setting
Subjects
Procedures
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The Complaint Committees of each hospital received our invitational letter and the privacy protocol. They were asked to address our package (with questionnaire, letter and return envelop) to all the complainants without selection.
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Complainants received the questionnaire immediately after their complaint had been received.
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The completed questionnaires were sent back directly and anonymously to our research institute NIVEL.
Informed consent procedure
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The complaint committee and the hospital employees did not see the complainant's questionnaire. They did not know which complainants had completed the questionnaire,
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It was explained to the complainants (in a letter) that they were entirely free in their decision whether or not to complete the questionnaire. No reminder would follow and their response would be treated confidentially.
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The letter also explained that patients' responses to the questionnaire would and could have no bearing on the conduct or outcome of the complaint procedures.
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A written privacy protocol was used to process the data. This protocol had been sent to all the Complaint Committees. The professionals involved and the hospital management were also given this protocol, when they asked for it.
Development of the questionnaire
Importance | not important | important | very- and most important |
---|---|---|---|
Procedures:
| % | % | % |
The complaint committee should: | |||
- recommend the hospital to change things | 1 | 6 | 89 |
- give an adjudication about the complaint's validity | 2 | 13 | 82 |
- give an explaining rationale of the adjudication | 3 | 14 | 79 |
- investigate the incident | 3 | 15 | 78 |
- give clear information about the complaint procedures | 2 | 33 | 59 |
- give me the opportunity to tell what happened personally | 18 | 21 | 53 |
- respond swiftly | 7 | 44 | 44 |
Importance | not important | important | very- and most important |
---|---|---|---|
The complaint committee should: | % | % | % |
- take an impartial attitude and position | 1 | 8 | 87 |
- treat me respectfully | 2 | 12 | 82 |
- show understanding for my experiences | 6 | 18 | 73 |
- listen to my own story of what happened | 6 | 15 | 71 |
- show sympathy for what I went through | 23 | 25 | 47 |
Importance | not important | important | very and most important |
The hospital board should:
| % | % | % |
- make the complaint to be discussed with the employees or department involved | 2 | 12 | 80 |
- let me know that corrective measures have been taken | 5 | 11 | 79 |
- let me know which corrective measures were taken | 12 | 14 | 68 |
- take punitive measures when mistakes were made | 34 | 17 | 39 |
Importance | not important | important | very and most important |
The professional subject to the complaint should:
| % | % | % |
- admit a mistake when it has occurred | 2 | 7 | 84 |
- explain how the incident could have happened | 9 | 14 | 65 |
- offer an apology | 24 | 22 | 41 |
- show sympathy for what I went through | 29 | 21 | 38 |
- make an effort to recover our relationship | 53 | 17 | 15 |
Content of the questionnaire
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The nature of the complaint (4 items)
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What do you expect from the complaint committee with respect to the interpersonal communication (5 items) and the procedures and outcome (7 items)
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What do you expect from the hospital board with respect to interpersonal communication and the outcome? (4 items).
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What do you expect from the professional(s) who gave cause to the complaint with respect to interpersonal communication and the outcome (5 items)?
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What were your main motives to lodge a complaint? (6 items)
Analysis
Respondents
Results
Participants
Discussion
Aim and relevance of this study
Complainants' expectations
Fairness of the process, the communication and the outcome
Meeting patients' expectations
Limitations of the study: cultural differences
Complainants' motives to complain
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Competing interests
Authors' contributions
Importance | not important | important | very important + most important |
Reasons to complain
| % | % | % |
- I want to prevent the incident happening to others | 1 | 4 | 94 |
- I want the complaint to be known at a higher level | 7 | 14 | 75 |
- What has happened goes against my sense of justice | 11 | 13 | 70 |
- I feel it as my duty to lodge a complaint | 12 | 15 | 68 |
- I want to prevent the incident happening to me again | 14 | 13 | 67 |
- I want to prevent the incident being kept private | 20 | 22 | 52 |
- My first motive is to attack injustice. |
- 'It is your duty. This should not happen to anyone else. Something has to change'. |
- 'My aim is that something will change. I thought that the committee would be able to achieve more things than an individual patient'. |
- 'I want justice to be done. I owe it to my deceased husband. I must avail of all manners to raise the issue. Otherwise I would regret it my whole life'. |
- 'I have lodged a complaint despite the apology of the doctor. That is not enough. I don't let it down. I have suffered a lot last weeks'. |
- 'My motive is to prevent it happen in the future. People should learn from it. Something must change'. |
- My motive was to be taken seriously. I had suffered much pain and anxiety and the doctor had not taken it seriously. |
- You should make known that things go wrong. That is your duty. |