Analysis of The Complaints of The Patients and Their Relatives to Healthcare Professionals

ABSTRACT Objective The aim of this study is to determine the complaints of patients and their relatives, to provide necessary measures and to find solutions. Material and Methods It was retrospectively analyzed and conducted as a single-center study. The complaints of patients and their relatives who applied to the Patient Rights Unit, Ministry of Health Communication Center, Prime Ministry Communication Center, Presidential Communication Center from the hospital medical records between 2018 and 2019 were examined. Data were analyzed on IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 package program. Results 1385 applications were examined. Most of the complainants were men (66.1%). The most frequent complainants were between the ages of 20-40 (56.3%), high-school graduates (56.3%), in the self- employed/artisan group (24.2%). The most of the complaints were made application to the Patient Rights Unit (58.7%). Complaints were most common for physicians who in charge of primary care of the patient (49.5%) and least common for consultant physician (0.2%). The most common complaints were about poor attitude (26.9%) and long waiting time (21.7%). Most of the complaints were made in 2019 (n:835), July (n:239) and on Friday (n:326), and also most of the complaints were made against the Department of Pediatrics (n:190 (13.7%)) and Emergency Medicine (n:129 (9.3%). When the complaint-patient ratio was examined, it was perceived that the most complaints were from the laboratory and pathology departments. Conclusion It is concluded that patient rights units are very crucial and they have an important role in evaluating the quality of institutions and determining the existing deficiencies as well as increasing patient satisfaction.