ArticleInternational journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care2022
An analysis of complaints about hospital care in the Republic of Ireland.
Article in International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stage-specific harm in early-stage hospitals in South Korea: a retrospective analysis using the healthcare complaints analysis tool.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Classifying Patient Complaints Using Artificial Intelligence-Powered Large Language Models: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Impact of hospital complaint handling on promoting high-quality development of hospitals via an emotional language analysis model: a case study of a tertiary hospital service center in Quanzhou city, Fujian province.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- Sailing Too Close to the Wind? How Harnessing Patient Voice Can Identify Drift towards Boundaries of Acceptable Performance.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient complaints within one Irish teaching hospital.Irish journal of medical science · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPatients and family members make complaints about their hospital care in order to express their dissatisfaction with the care received and prompt quality improvement. Increasingly, it is being understood that these complaints could serve as important data on how to improve care if analysed using a standardized tool. The use of the Healthcare Complaints Analysis Tool (HCAT) for this purpose has emerged internationally for quality and safety improvement. Previous work has identified hot spots (areas in care where harm occurs frequently) and blind spots (areas in care that are difficult for staff members to observe) from complaints analysis. This study aimed to (i) apply the HCAT to a sample of complaints about hospital care in the Republic of Ireland (RoI) to identify hot spots and blind spots in care and (ii) compare the findings of this analysis to a previously published study on hospital complaints in the UK.
methodsA sample of complaints was taken from 16 hospitals in the RoI in Quarter 4 of 2019 (n = 641). These complaints were coded using the HCAT to classify complaints by domain, category, severity, stage of care and harm. Chi-squared tests were used to identify hot spots, and logistic regression was used to identify blind spots. The findings of this study were compared to a previously published UK study that used HCAT to identify hot spots and blind spots.
resultsHot spots were identified in Irish hospital complaints while patients were receiving care on the ward, during initial examination and diagnosis, and while they were undergoing operations or procedures. This aligned with hot spots identified in the UK study. Blind spots were found for systemic problems, where patients experience multiple issues across their care.
conclusionsHot spots and blind spots for patient harm can be identified in hospital care using the HCAT analysis. These in turn could be used to inform improvement interventions, and direct stakeholders to areas that require urgent attention. This study also highlights the promise of the HCAT for use across different healthcare systems, with similar results emerging from the RoI and the UK.
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