A retrospective study of complaint letters sent to a Swiss Emergency Department between 2009 and 2014.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_EE730C243BFA
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
A retrospective study of complaint letters sent to a Swiss Emergency Department between 2009 and 2014.
Journal
Revue d'epidemiologie et de sante publique
Author(s)
Pfeil M.N., Yersin B., Trueb L., Feiner A.S., Carron P.N.
ISSN
0398-7620 (Print)
ISSN-L
0398-7620
Publication state
Published
Issued date
02/2018
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
66
Number
1
Pages
75-80
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Patient complaints are a valuable resource for monitoring and improving patient safety and quality of care. The purpose of this study was to analyze the complaint letters received at a Swiss academic emergency department (ED) over six years.
A retrospective study of all complaint letters sent to a Swiss academic ED between 2009 and 2014 was conducted. The following data were extracted: epidemiology items, reasons for complaints, hospital responses, follow-up, and severity of the events mentioned in the complaints. All complaint letters related to adult patients evaluated in the ED between 2009 and 2014 were included and a qualitative evaluation was performed based on a systematic taxonomy. Context, patient characteristics, mode of resolution and clinical severity of the related adverse event were evaluated.
A total number of 156 complaints were recorded, corresponding to an annual complaint rate of 5.5 to 8.8 per 10,000 visits. The complaints concerned mostly three domains (clinical care, management and patient or caregiver relationship) with a slight predominance for organisation and logistics (39%) compared with 31.4% for standard of care and 29.6% for communication/relational complaints. The majority of complaints were sent within one month of the ED visit. Most complaints were resolved with written apologies or explanations. The consequences of 73.5% of the events in question were considered minor or negligible, 19% moderate, and 6.5% major. Only 1% (two cases) was related to situations with catastrophic consequences.
Complaint incidence in our ED was low and remained stable over the six-year observation period. Most of the complaints pertained to incidents that entailed negligible or minor consequences. As most complaints were due to inadequate communication, interventions targeting improvement of the doctor/patient communication are required.
Keywords
Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Communication, Correspondence as Topic, Dissent and Disputes, Emergency Service, Hospital/standards, Emergency Service, Hospital/statistics & numerical data, Female, Health Care Surveys, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Patient Harm/statistics & numerical data, Patient Safety/standards, Patient Safety/statistics & numerical data, Patient Satisfaction/statistics & numerical data, Physician-Patient Relations, Professional-Patient Relations, Retrospective Studies, Switzerland/epidemiology, Triage/standards, Young Adult, Complaints, Emergency department, Patient safety, Plaintes, Quality of care, Qualité des soins, Satisfaction, Service des urgences, Sécurité des patients
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
22/01/2018 11:12
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:16
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