Patient complaints about health care in a Swedish County: characteristics and satisfaction after handling

AIM To describe patient complaints and to examine possible associations between healthcare providers' statements and reports of satisfaction/dissatisfaction. DESIGN A retrospective and descriptive design was used to examine filed complaints. METHODS Complaints from one Patient Advisory Committee in Sweden in 2011 was examined using three different protocols/reading guides (n = 618). Associations between contents in responses from healthcare providers and reports of satisfaction/dissatisfaction from the complainants were analysed. RESULTS Less than one-third of the complainants were satisfied after handling and with healthcare providers' statements about the complaint. The most frequent causes for dissatisfaction were that the healthcare provider 'did not tell the truth' or 'gave insufficient information'. There was a statistically significant association with dissatisfaction if the statement from the healthcare provider included the category 'disagree/defend themselves'. Four categories were associated with being satisfied and the associations were statistically significant when two or more of these were combined.