Obstacles remain in radiology in categorizing patient complaints, but the data are widely considered important in addressing grievances and achieving healthcare’s triple aim.
Previous research found image-guided interventions comprise most complaints reported by patients in radiology, with a majority involving more than one area of concern.
This prompted a group of New England researchers to retrospectively analyze patient complaint narratives and categorize them into a three-level taxonomy. The study, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, found clinical codes and communication breakdown as the most common reasons for complaints with no significant difference between multifactorial and single-coded complaints.
Study authors extracted 146 codes from 71 patient complaint narratives submitted between April 1999 and December 2012. Resolutions were broken down into topics: clarification, apology, manager notification, change of provider, reimbursement and quality review.
The three-person team from New Jersey Medical School at Rutgers University and Harvard Medical School classified the resolutions into the following codes: clinical (52 percent), management (24 percent), and relationships (24 percent).
Corresponding author Gloria M. Salazar, with Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues noted that the most common codes which contributed to complaints included quality of care (13.7 percent), safety (11.6 percent) and communication breakdown issues (11 percent). The frequency of satisfactory resolution was 86 percent for multifactorial complaints compared to 81 percent for single-coded issues.
“Our findings showed that most complaints in image-guided interventions are multifactorial and despite that, patient satisfaction with complaint resolution was high, emphasizing the need for service recovery and proper response to a grievance,” wrote Salazar et al.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.