Abstract
Background: Complaints related to health care made by patients and their families to medical institutions may pose a serious risk not only to the patient's life and health, but also to hospital organizations. In 2014, Reader et al. established a patient complaint taxonomy through a systematic review, which finally opened the way for future utilization. In this study, we created our Japanese version of this taxonomy, verified its usability, and statistically analyzed the tendencies of complaints.
Methods: We developed a Japanese version of Reader et al.’s taxonomy and utilized this to classify complaints and other thoughts collected via Patient Services at Tokyo Medical University Hospital between January 2019 and June 2021. We examined the trends in complaint categories according to medical specialty in addition to those that did not specify a medical specialty.
Results: The Japanese taxonomy can be used to analyze patients’complaints and thoughts in large teaching hospitals in Japan. Because of the wide range of complaints addressed in this study, it can be used in other hospitals in Japan as well. This study suggests that the trends in hospital complaints in our country may differ from those in previous studies conducted in other countries. Complaints that did not fall under a specific category included words of gratitude, negative views on certain matters, unintelligible words, and clear accusations.
Conclusion: This Japanese taxonomy can be used to analyze complaints in Japan, and the knowledge gained from its use will contribute not only to the handling of complaints at individual hospitals, but also in improving the quality of facilities throughout Japan.
