Wait times are not the problem! Detailed analysis of unsolicited patient complaints from a metropolitan Australian emergency department.

OBJECTIVE

To describe characteristics of ED admissions that resulted in unsolicited complaints and compare with overall ED admissions. The site utilised is an inner city tertiary hospital, with 630 beds, with approximately 82 600 annual presentations, where 32.5% were children.

METHODS

Complaints between the dates of 27 November 2012 and 10 March 2016 were reviewed. Performance indicators and the distribution of presentations by diagnostic code were reviewed.

RESULTS

A total of 572 different complaint reasons were found and grouped into 12 categories. The most common reasons for complaints were treatment (33.2%) and communication (28.3%), and most complaints concerned medical staff. Other variables including wait times have no effect on patient complaints. Utilising aggregate numbers, the overall paediatric complaint ratio was 0.98:1000 presentations, and the total adult department complaints were 1.78:1000 presentations.

CONCLUSION

As seen in this study the vast majority of patient complaints were associated with treatment and communication issues and skewed towards doctors. It may be feasible for medical staff to undertake communication training as clinician-patient communication in the ED is an important aspect in the improvement of patient satisfaction and in decreasing patient complaints as waiting times and triage categories had no major influence on patient complaints.