Understanding Complaints Made About Surgical Departments in a UK District General Hospital

BACKGROUND Patient complaints are increasingly recognised to provide a valuable insight into patients’ experience of healthcare. Being local and subjective, they can bring to light previously under-appreciated causes of patient dissatisfaction. The focus of surgical care is usually an intervention, and the nature of complaints made about surgical care may vary substantially from those in non-surgical specialties. This may have specific implications for quality improvement in surgical departments. This study aims to investigate the causes of patient dissatisfaction in surgical care. METHODS We retrospectively examined the content and frequency of patient complaints received by surgical departments at a UK district general hospital in the calendar year 2017. Second-hand reports of complaints, documented by members of the hospital’s complaints department, were collated from a prospectively maintained database and categorised by content. RESULTS 399 complaints were received over the study period. These related to the care of 327 different patients. One complaint was generated for every 111 patient encounters. 91% were made by the patient, and 8.8% by a family member. Complaints cited communication with hospital staff in 25% of cases, out-of-hospital delays in 24%, clinical issues in 22%, hospital administration in 16%, and in-hospital delays in 10%. Post-operative symptoms and complications accounted for only 2% of complaints. 26% of complaints resulted in the rescheduling of an operation or clinic appointment. 17% prompted internal action within the surgical department to investigate and learn from the incident. CONCLUSION The profile of complaints made about surgical departments is similar to that of non-surgical departments in other studies. Clinical issues represented only the third largest cause of complaints. More complaints implicated patient-staff communication, and around half implicated management-related issues. Improving staff communication training, clinical standards and hospital administration continue to represent opportunities to enhance patients’ overall experience of surgical care.