A strategic and good governance perspective on handling patient complaints

Purpose The patient complaint is one of the main procedures of exercising patient’s rights in the Finnish health care system. Such complaints typically concern the quality of care and/or patient safety. The purpose of this paper is to examine the types of patient complaints received by a specialized medical care organization and the kinds of responses given by the organization’s personnel. The organization’s strategy and good governance principles provide the framework for understanding the organization’s action. Design/methodology/approach This study’s data comprise patient complaints and the responses from personnel of a specialized medical care organization from the start of 2012 to the end of January 2014. The data were analyzed through qualitative data analysis. Findings The results show many unwanted grievances, but also reveal the procedures employed to improve health care processes. The results are related to patients’ care experiences, provision of information, personnel’s professional skills and the approach to patient complaints handling. The integrative result of the analysis was to find consensus between the patients’ expectations and personnel’s evaluation of patients’ needs. Originality/value Few prior studies have examined patient complaints related to both strategy and good governance. Patient complaints were found to have several confluences with an organization’s strategic goals, objectives and good governance principles. The study recommends further research on personnel procedures for patient complaints handling, with a view to influencing strategic planning and implementation of strategies of organizations.