Patient complaints as predictors of patient safety incidents

Patients remain an underused resource in efforts can provide valuable insights into the care they receive. This study aimed to establish whether high incidents (HLIs) were predictable from preceding complaints, e study complaints received from November 2011 through June 2012 and HLI incident reports from April through September 2012 were examined. Complaints and HLIs were categorised according to location or themes they included. Data were analysed to look for correlations between number of complaints and HLIs in a given area. A qualitative analysis was carried out to determine whether any complaints contained information that, if acted upon earlier, could have prevented later HLIs. correlation was established between location of HLIs and complaints. Complaints commonly focused on staff attitude, diagnostic problems and delayed treatment. HLIs most often arose from failure to recognise a patient’s deterioration and escalate appropriately or incorrect patient identification. Most HLIs were not preceded by similar complaints. However, in two instances complaints did signpost futur act as an early warning system. There is a need to devise reliable means of identifying the minority of complaints that do precede serious incidents.