ArticleFamily practice2022
Identifying hot spots for harm and blind spots across the care pathway from patient complaints about general practice.
Article in Family practice, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Compensation claims for chiropractic in Denmark 2013-2022.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2026Article
- From challenge to growth: Exploring physician narratives of patient complaints during residency.Medical education · 2025Review
- Classifying Patient Complaints Using Artificial Intelligence-Powered Large Language Models: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient complaints within one Irish teaching hospital.Irish journal of medical science · 2023Article
- Does systematic analysis of patient complaints and compensation cases at hospitals provide useful information to guide quality improvement? Experience from Denmark.BMJ open quality · 2023Article
- Collecting Patient Feedback as a Means of Monitoring Patient Experience and Hospital Service Quality - Learning from a Government-led Initiative.Patient preference and adherence · 2023Article
- Using Healthcare Complaints Analysis Tool to Evaluate Patient Complaints during the COVID-19 Pandemic at a Medical Center in Taiwan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Patient Identification of Diagnostic Safety Blindspots and Participation in "Good Catches" Through Shared Visit Notes.The Milbank quarterly · 2022Article
- An analysis of complaints about hospital care in the Republic of Ireland.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionHealthcare complaints are underutilized for quality improvement in general practice. Systematic analysis of complaints has identified hot spots (areas across the care pathway where issues occur frequently) and blind spots (areas across the care pathway that cannot be observed by staff) in secondary care. The Healthcare Complaints Analysis Tool (HCAT) has been adapted to the HCAT(GP).
aimsThis study aimed to: (i) assess whether the HCAT(GP) can systematically analyze complaints about general practice; and (ii) identify hot spots and blind spots in general practice.
methodsGP complaints were sampled. Complaints were coded with the HCAT(GP), classified by HCAT(GP) category (e.g. Safety, Environment, Listening), stage of care (e.g. accessing care, referral/follow-up), severity (e.g. low, medium, high), and harm (e.g. none, major). Descriptive statistics were run to identify discrete issues. A chi-square test of independence identified hot spots, and logistic regression was used for blind spots.
resultsA total of 230 complaints, encompassing 432 issues (i.e. unique problems within complaints), were categorized. Relationship issues (e.g. problems with listening, communication, and patient rights) emerged most frequently (n = 174, 40%). Hot spots were identified in the consultation and the referral/follow-up stages (χ 2(5, n = 432) = 17.931, P < 0.05). A blind spot for multiple issues was identified, with the likelihood of harm increasing with number of issues (odds ratio = 2.02, confidence interval = 1.27-3.23, P < 0.05).
conclusionsComplaints are valuable data for improving general practice. This study demonstrated that the HCAT(GP) can support the systematic analysis of general practice complaints, and identify hot spots and blind spots in care.
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