Analysing of Medical Schemes Complaints by Means of Parametric Proportional Hazard Frailty Models

The objective of the current study was to assess factors that affect the response time to complaints by members of medical schemes. In order to assess these factors, survival analysis techniques were employed, in particular the frailty models. Parametric proportional hazards frailty models controlled for factors such medical scheme type, nature of complaint and analyst effect. The model revealed that scheme type (p<0.0001), nature of complaint (p<0.0001) and the analyst effect (p=0.0004) were significant factors in response time to complaints. The study also revealed that parametric proportional hazards frailty models provide a viable ways to study relationships of factors that affect resolution or response time. Furthermore, this research work emphasizes the importance of studying the root cause or nature of complaints as it relates to resolution time and understanding business processes that cause complaints. Lastly, results obtained in this work highlight the need for better understanding of the relations between the complaints handling staff characteristics and response time to complaints, as the latter is critical in deploying appropriate resources to effectively improve on response time.