SynthesisBMJ quality & safety2014
Patient complaints in healthcare systems: a systematic review and coding taxonomy.
Synthesis in BMJ quality & safety, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 161 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
161 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Experience of compassionate care in mental health and community-based services for children and young people: facilitators of, and barriers to compassionate care- a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- What can we learn from patient and family experiences of open disclosure and how they have been evaluated? A systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Understanding healthcare professionals' responses to patient complaints in secondary and tertiary care in the UK: A systematic review and behavioural analysis using the Theoretical Domains Framework.Health research policy and systems · 2024Pooled it
- Patient characteristics of, and remedial interventions for, complaints and medico-legal claims against doctors: a rapid review of the literature.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of Physicians' Information Giving on Patient Outcomes: a Systematic Review.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Measurement and monitoring patient safety in prehospital care: a systematic review.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2021Pooled it
- What Do Patients Complain About Online: A Systematic Review and Taxonomy Framework Based on Patient Centeredness.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Pooled it
- Patient and public involvement in medical performance processes: A systematic review.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2019Pooled it
- Characterising patient complaints in out-of-hours general practice: a retrospective cohort study in Ireland.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2018Pooled it
- Assessing patient-centred communication in teaching: a systematic review of instruments.Medical education · 2017Pooled it
- Forgiveness of Self and Situations and Rumination as Mental Health Correlates in Dental School Students.Journal of dental education · 2026Article
- Mapping patient complaints to the World Health Organization patient safety rights charter: a retrospective study from Croatia.Croatian medical journal · 2026Article
- Unsolicited Patient Complaints in Spine Surgery: An In-Depth Study of How and Why They Occur.Neurosurgery practice · 2026Article
- The Impact of Age and Gender on Patient Grievances in a Dental Academic Setting: A 6-Year Analysis.European journal of dental education : official journal of the Association for Dental Education in Europe · 2026Article
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- Documentation of Everyday Complaints in Veterinary Practice: Is There a Need for Greater Detail?Veterinary sciences · 2026Article
- Less continuity with more complaints: a repeated cross-sectional study of the association between relational continuity of care and patient complaints in English general practice.BMJ quality & safety · 2026Article
- Complaints filed with the Veterinary Disciplinary Board in Sweden - a thematic analysis.BMC veterinary research · 2026Article
- Between Ideal and Actual Care: Patients' and Family Carers' Experiences of Cancer Care Relationships.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
101 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatient complaints have been identified as a valuable resource for monitoring and improving patient safety. This article critically reviews the literature on patient complaints, and synthesises the research findings to develop a coding taxonomy for analysing patient complaints.
methodsThe PubMed, Science Direct and Medline databases were systematically investigated to identify patient complaint research studies. Publications were included if they reported primary quantitative data on the content of patient-initiated complaints. Data were extracted and synthesised on (1) basic study characteristics; (2) methodological details; and (3) the issues patients complained about.
results59 studies, reporting 88,069 patient complaints, were included. Patient complaint coding methodologies varied considerably (eg, in attributing single or multiple causes to complaints). In total, 113,551 issues were found to underlie the patient complaints. These were analysed using 205 different analytical codes which when combined represented 29 subcategories of complaint issue. The most common issues complained about were 'treatment' (15.6%) and 'communication' (13.7%). To develop a patient complaint coding taxonomy, the subcategories were thematically grouped into seven categories, and then three conceptually distinct domains. The first domain related to complaints on the safety and quality of clinical care (representing 33.7% of complaint issues), the second to the management of healthcare organisations (35.1%) and the third to problems in healthcare staff-patient relationships (29.1%).
conclusionsRigorous analyses of patient complaints will help to identify problems in patient safety. To achieve this, it is necessary to standardise how patient complaints are analysed and interpreted. Through synthesising data from 59 patient complaint studies, we propose a coding taxonomy for supporting future research and practice in the analysis of patient complaint data.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.