Journal of Patient Experience (Jun 2022)

Testing the Healthcare Complaints Analysis Tool in a Specialist Pediatric Hospital to Assess Potential Utility for Organizational Learning from Complaints

  • Jo Wray PhD,
  • Claire Williams BA,
  • Geralyn Oldham MSc

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/23743735221106594
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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The importance of improving the analysis of complaints about poor healthcare experiences is recognized but often not addressed. We explored the utility of the Healthcare Complaints Assessment Tool for analyzing written complaints in a specialist pediatric hospital receiving relatively few, but complex, complaints. The scoring framework could be applied but, in contrast to previous work, the complexity of complaints was considerably greater. Responses to the complainant were also scored and we identified instances of both higher and lower levels of severity than identified by the complainant, suggesting a novel application of the tool which will be important for institutional learning.