Defining an integrative multidimensional framework for patient complaint management systems.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Safety
• Organizational Learning

Background:

• Patient complaints are often treated administratively, overlooking their potential for learning.
• Emerging research highlights complaints as indicators of system vulnerability and patient safety risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present an integrative framework for hospital complaint management.
• To synthesize eight fragmented domains of complaint management into a cohesive model.

Main Methods:

• An integrative, framework-informed methodology combining inductive and deductive synthesis.
• Review of theoretical and policy literatures on complaint management and organizational learning.

Main Results:

• Reconceptualizes patient complaints as a system within hospital operations, not just an administrative task.
• Identifies eight key domains: System Consistency, classification, leadership, behavior, change, data analytics, risk detection, and ethical/legal considerations.
• Highlights gaps in holistic assessment tools and proposes performance-based contracting for improved responsiveness.

Conclusions:

• Patient complaints are multidimensional organizational assets that can expose systemic weaknesses and safety risks.
• A holistic approach to complaint management is crucial for enhancing patient safety and organizational learning.
• Further research is needed to develop validated assessment instruments and explore innovative contracting models.