Patient complaints about health care in a Swedish County: characteristics and satisfaction after handling.
Charlotta Skålén, Lena Nordgren, Eva-Maria Annerbäck
PMID 27708831WHAT IT FOUND
72% of complainants who responded were dissatisfied with healthcare provider statements.
Defensive, routine-only, blame-shifting or brief replies were linked to dissatisfaction; acknowledging mistakes, regret and planned review were linked to satisfaction.
Key findings
01Most complainants who responded were dissatisfied with the healthcare provider statement (72% of 221 respondents).
02A statement that disagreed or defended the provider was significantly associated with dissatisfaction (odds ratio 2·83, P = 0·023).
03Combining two or more statement categories linked to satisfaction (acknowledging mistakes, internal problems, review or routine changes, regret) was significantly associated with satisfaction (odds ratio 0·49, P = 0·03).
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
The study came from one Swedish County patient advisory committee, so it may not apply elsewhere. It reviewed complaints from 2011, and complaint handling may have changed. Complaints filed with the committee represent only a small share of dissatisfied patients and relatives. Only 221 of 618 files had a questionnaire response, so the satisfaction analysis depends on those who answered. The questionnaire asked only whether complainants were satisfied or dissatisfied and why, not what helped in the complaint process. Content categories were assigned by authors reading subjective complaint texts and statements.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that changing the wording of a provider statement will make complainants satisfied. The study only reports associations between statement content and satisfaction in 221 responses from one Swedish complaint service. It did not test whether changing statements improves satisfaction.