Patient’s Complaints and Response Mechanism Provided by Departments in the Ambulatory Care Settings of King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background and Aim: Patient complaints received against different healthcare departments are usually justified that may lead to remedial actions, apology, or compensation. The purpose of this study was to analyses the services that receive most of patient’s complaints together with examining the types of actions made by a specific department after receiving the complaint. This will ultimately assist in identifying the practices and procedures that needs to be changed and help in making recommendations for intervention strategies aiming to reduce the rates of complaints. Method: A descriptive study was undertaken using the complaint database from patient’s relations department. All the recorded patients’ complaints, from 1st January 2015 - 30th June 2016 were reviewed. Data were analyzed and categorized using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 627 complaints were reviewed, of which 63% complaints were received from females and 37% from males, respectively. The main actions being taken for a complaint raised were explanation and information (65.4%), services obtained (25.8 %), policy and procedure review (4%), and education (1.8%). Findings also suggests that most of the complaints were received from OB / GYN department (19%), followed by plastic surgery (11%), Ophthalmology (10.8%) ENT (10.2%), Employee health clinic (6.5%), and General surgery (5.4%) Conclusion: The results demonstrate that sufficient staff availability, proper communication skills, effective policy development, and paying attention to the requirements and expectations of the patient might reduce complaints from different departments and services. Studies in future with respect to patient complaints ideas as a tool to assess the quality of care are warranted.