Verbal complaints key for monitoring satisfaction
Get set to collect this valuable data
By Patrice Spath, ART
Consultant in Health Care Quality and Resource Management
Forest Grove, OR
Many facilities have established elaborate patient survey questionnaires and encounter groups to gather satisfaction information. Another important source of patient satisfaction data is the complaints that are made verbally or in writing. It is important to accumulate these criticisms and merge them with other patient satisfaction results.
To capture information about all the informal complaints made at the department level, it is important for the hospital to have a formal mechanism for documenting, following up, and reporting these types complaints. If each department manager is allowed to use his or her own methods for handling complaint situations, the organization will have difficulties capturing and analyzing aggregate grievance data. Likewise, if each department summarizes complaint data on its own quarterly performance measurement report, it is difficult for leaders to see trends or patterns that cross departmental boundaries.
Development of a patient complaint documentation and reporting procedure begins with an institutionwide policy statement, such as the one shown below:
All notification of dissatisfaction with patient service will be investigated promptly, corrective action taken where appropriate, and results of the entire process, including the details of the complaint and actions taken, reported through the performance improvement program of the individual departments.
The next step is to establish a formal procedure for implementing this policy statement. Shown below is a sample patient complaint procedure:
1. Any oral or written complaint will be entered on a Patient Complaint Form in an objective manner by the staff member receiving the complaint. (See form, p. 142.) If the complaint is verbal, the patient/family will be requested to submit their written letter of complaint to the department manager.
2. The department manager, upon receiving the Patient Complaint Form and/or written patient complaint letter will gather pertinent documents and details for review. This may include contacting the patient/family by phone to confirm previously provided information. In addition, the patient/family will be informed that they will receive a formal written response to their complaint. The flow of complaint investigation will be documented in the Complaint Flow Log. (See log, below.)
3. Written responses to complaints will be requested from all staff members or physicians who were named in the complaint, any other staff members who witnessed the situation, or staff members who can provide additional information.
4. The department manager, and/or medical director, and/or chairman of the appropriate medical staff committee will review all information and determine the suitable response. All plans of action will be reviewed by the risk manager prior to implementation.
5. A written response to the department’s investigation, corrective action (if any), and final determination will be sent to the complainant. This letter will be originated by the department manager unless the complaint involves a physician, then the department medical director or appropriate medical staff committee chairman will initiate the written response.
6. If appropriate to the situation, problems related to individual staff or physician performance will be referred to the pertinent administrative or medical staff department for peer review.
7. All complaints and responses will be shared with the risk manager for pattern/trend analysis and necessary legal review.
8. The quality manager will keep a record of all patient complaints and actions taken on the Patient Complaint Log. (See log, p. 141.) The logs will be arranged by department and by physician, if applicable. Summary reports of pattern/trend information will be regularly shared with administration, the medical staff, and the governing board.
9. Patient complaint information will be used as one measure of departmental, medical staff, and hospital quality.
Customer feedback is an important measure of hospital quality. The complaints received by hospital staff, physicians, and administration are a component of this customer survey process. It is unlikely this information will be useful as a measure of staff/physician performance without a formal system for documenting and collating complaints. A standardized, hospitalwide method for handling complaints enhances the public’s image of the hospital and substantiates the hospital’s concern for high quality patient care and services.
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