Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Evaluation of the factors related to the patients&apos complaints against medical staff, especially doctors and efforts towards its reduction affects patients&apos satisfaction of health care system.  The main purpose of the present study was to determine the factors related to the patient`s complaint against doctors with the verdict of Medical Council of Kerman.
This study was a descriptive, analytical and practical evaluation, assessing 250 documents related to the patients&apos complaints of doctors in Kerman Medical Council during 2004-2009.
 The most reasons of complaints (%73.2) were carelessness and disrespecting scientific and legal standards, and obtaining funds out of legal standards (%9.3) respectively. In the case of issuing vote, the most opinions (%31.7) were innocence and suspended and barred from prosecuting (%22.9) respectively. Most complaints were of ophthalmologists and private hospitals.  There were significant relationship between the reason of complaint and issued out (P<0.01, c²= 53.706) and the reason of complaints and field practitioners (P=0.026, c²= 49.27). No significant relationship between issued out and the type of hospital was found.
Regarding the results, respecting scientific, and legal standards, and decreasing financial relationships between doctors and patients is an effective way in reducing patients&apos complaints of physicians. Improvement in physicians&apos patients&apos relationship by explaining the disease condition, its risks and treatment options to patients are effective in reducing patient&aposs complaint against physicians.

The present study is an overview of the causes of patient complaints against physicians and the medical staff in Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, and strategies to reduce the complaints. For this purpose, complaints that had been filed with the clinical governance office of Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex in 2012 and 2013 were investigated. The information in the forms included age and sex of the plaintiffs, their level of education, type of complaint and similar details. Of the 309 complaints, 174 had been recorded in 2012 and 135 in 2013. The plaintiffs were males with a mean age of 50.5, and 69.6% of them had high school diplomas or lower. Most (16.2%) of the complaints pertained to the emergency department, while 48.5% and 22.7% of the complaints were related to doctors and nurses respectively. In 62.5% of the cases, the accused had been acquitted and 34% had been convicted. The main cause of complaint involved treatment and care at 40.1% and 36.6% respectively. In general, the most common causes of complaints were treatment and care for doctors, and lack of respect for nurses and others. Thus, more attention should be paid to the continuous education of medical students and residents during training years in order to increase the knowledge and skills of physicians. Other measures that can reduce complaints are: providing sufficient information to patients before diagnostic or therapeutic procedures improving the equipment in health centers educating the society and raising public awareness of the treatment process offering the necessary information during medical procedures obtaining informed consent careful choice of the medical team and assigning them to the right position and holding communication skills workshops.