EVALUATION OF PATIENT COMPLAINTS IN HEALTH INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Patient complaints, which express the dissatisfaction of the patients about the services they receive, are an important communication tool for health institutions to understand the needs and expectations of patients. The patient complaint management system is a strategic management tool that transfers patient experiences, expectations and needs to the health institution. In this study, the patient complaint management system of the Ministry of Health hospitals was examined and the distribution of the current complaints in the context of various variables was determined and it was examined whether the distribution was meaningful according to the regional development level of the provinces. While the patient complaints were 10.478 in 2007, this number has increased to 23.921 in 2012, but it has decreased to 19.266 in 2013 and 14.291 in 2014. As the level of education increases, the rate of using the right of complaint increases. Public hospitals are the most frequently complainers of public hospitals. The region that stands out in terms of patient complaints is Istanbul region with 22,2%. Distribution by hospital units is concentrated in polyclinic services with 44,7%. The most common problem of the patient complaints is the fact that 45,2% of services are not available. It was revealed that the number of complaints increased as the level of regional development increased. The number of physicians leads to the conclusion that there is an increase in expectations as factors such as the level of education, regional development level, and the factors related to the people who are responsible for providing health services rather than the indicators of socioeconomic development, or the problems related to the hospital functioning, and the level of the level of regional development increase.