Patient complaints evaluation stages-II in emergency setting: implementing of the evaluation form

Abstract

Objectives: The study was performed to determine the patients’ complaints and satisfaction in emergency setting.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive and analytic research, was conducted between December 9, 2006 and June 30, 2007 with 1514 patients in the emergency department of a private hospital in Istanbul. Data were collected by using a 13-question “Individual Characteristics Form” and a 35-question “Evaluation of Patient Complaints Form (EPCF) ” with a face-to-face interview. In addition, “Triage Categories Form” was also usedwhich includes a five category triage system.
Results: In this study, 70% of the patients were between 16 and 43 years old, 57% were female, 76% had a triage category of 4 and 62.3% (n=943) stated that they were “very pleased” with the care they received in the emergency department. However patients who thought the had a “very serious” health problem were “not satisfied at all” with the emergency department and and delayin their first emergency intervention causes dissatisfaction However, although these are statistical significant, the differences are not clinically significant. Among the emergency department patient complaints the most common was “the presence of curtains between the beds in the rooms and the beds which are not comfortable enough”.
Conclusion: Patients admitted to emergency department want to receive the care as soon as possbile. Interdisciplinary policies are needed to attend care to the emergency patients in the shortest time. Further studies with different populations are needed to determine factor affecting the satisfaction of emergency department patients.