Why Are Patients Unhappy with Their Healthcare? A Romanian Physicians’ Perspective
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
- -
- A section with general questions, addressed to all physicians practicing in Romania (socio-demographic, educational, professional, and general aspects related to the risk of malpractice complaints);
- -
- A section with specific questions for physicians who knew of a fellow physician who was complained against (reasons for the complaint and the impact of the complaint on them and their colleagues);
- -
- A section with specific questions for the physicians who themselves were complained against (the reasons for the complaint, the factors that contributed to the complaint, and the impact of the complaint on the complained physician).
3. Results
3.1. The Structure of the Group of Participants
3.2. The Most Common Reasons for Patient Dissatisfaction
3.3. Factors That Predispose a Physician to Being Complained against by a Patient
3.4. Reasons for the Complaints against the Participants’ Colleagues
3.5. Reasons for the Complaints against the Participants Themselves
3.6. Elements That Had a Role in the Occurrence of the Incident/Adverse Event That Triggered the Patients to Complain
3.7. Elements That Could Protect Physicians against Malpractice Complains
4. Discussion
5. Strengths and Limitations
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Characteristics | N (%) |
---|---|
Gender | |
Male | 488 (29.0) |
Female | 1196 (71.0) |
Marital status | |
Single | 302 (17.9) |
In a relationship | 1382 (82.1) |
Children | |
No | 543 (32.2) |
Yes | 1141 (67.8) |
Graduating institution | |
Private | 50 (3.0) |
Public | 1634 (97.0) |
Medical specialty | |
Family medicine | 321 (19.1) |
Medical | 692 (41.1) |
Surgical | 370 (22.0) |
Pediatrics | 123 (7.3) |
Laboratory | 178 (10.6) |
Professional degree | |
Resident | 161 (9.6) |
Specialist | 645 (38.3) |
Senior | 878 (52.1) |
Teaching activity | |
No | 1441 (85.6) |
Yes | 243 (14.4) |
Area of activity | |
Urban | 1522 (90.4) |
Rural | 88 (5.2) |
Both | 74 (4.4) |
Type of medical institution I | |
Public | 749 (44.5) |
Private | 482 (28.6) |
Both | 453 (26.9) |
Type of medical institution II | |
Regional/county hospital | 709 (42.1) |
Municipality hospital | 274 (16.2) |
City hospital | 101 (5.9) |
Polyclinic/ambulatory | 525 (31.1) |
Private medical office | 513 (30.4) |
Private hospital/clinic | 658 (39.0) |
Type of patients | |
Mostly women | 260 (15.4) |
Mostly men | 62 (3.7) |
Women and men equally | 1362 (80.9) |
Characteristics | M ± SD |
Age | 44.77 ± 10.98 |
Work seniority | 18.09 ± 11.53 |
Reason | Colleagues N (%) | Participants N (%) |
---|---|---|
Treatment complications | 292 (33.0%) | 67 (24.7%) |
Physician–patient relationship | 286 (32.4%) | 55 (20.3%) |
Treatment error | 207 (23.4%) | 47 (17.3%) |
Diagnostic error | 181 (20.5%) | 53 (19.6%) |
Suggested by colleagues | 106 (12.0%) | 56 (20.7%) |
Difficult communication within the medical team | 76 (8.6%) | 14 (5.2%) |
Related to the completion of the medical file | 40 (4.5%) | 5 (1.8%) |
Deficiency in obtaining informed consent | 41 (4.6%) | 3 (1.1%) |
Breach of confidentiality | 11 (1.2%) | 2 (0.7%) |
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Hanganu, B.; Manoilescu, I.S.; Paparau, C.; Gheuca-Solovastru, L.; Buhas, C.L.; Szalontay, A.S.; Ioan, B.G. Why Are Patients Unhappy with Their Healthcare? A Romanian Physicians’ Perspective. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 9460. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159460
Hanganu B, Manoilescu IS, Paparau C, Gheuca-Solovastru L, Buhas CL, Szalontay AS, Ioan BG. Why Are Patients Unhappy with Their Healthcare? A Romanian Physicians’ Perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(15):9460. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159460
Chicago/Turabian StyleHanganu, Bianca, Irina Smaranda Manoilescu, Cristian Paparau, Laura Gheuca-Solovastru, Camelia Liana Buhas, Andreea Silvana Szalontay, and Beatrice Gabriela Ioan. 2022. "Why Are Patients Unhappy with Their Healthcare? A Romanian Physicians’ Perspective" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 15: 9460. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159460