PATIENT COMPLAINTS – TOOL FOR IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY IN HOSPITALS

Sa？etak Patients’ rights are considered to be a standard of quality and an important goal of the University Hospital Sestre Milosrdnice. Therefore, special attention is given to patient complaints. During a twelve-month period at the University Hospital Sestre Milosrdnice, only 1.08 cases out of 10 000 cases of treatment was followed by an adequately received and processed complaint. 24% of the received complaints were related to the quality of patient-staff interaction, such as communication, 33% of complaints were related to treatment and patient care as well as medical documentation, 31% was related to the availability of medical care, while 6.7% of complaints was about the infrastructure and 5.3% about medical billing. Resolving the complaints and their justified causes should be effective and treated as a priority. The response to each complaint should be fast and handled in a friendly manner, while the complaint itself should be considered by the staff and management of the medical institution as a promotor of quality rather than a disciplinary tool