"Making Waves": Principles and Strategic Planning for Complaint Management and Reporting in the Nuclear Medicine Department

Author Type(s)

Resident/Fellow, Faculty

Document Type

Abstract

Publication Date

6-1-2023

Journal Title

Journal of Nuclear Medicine

Department

Radiology

Abstract

Introduction: -Patient complaints can be a valuable tool to both monitor and improve the presence of patient safety. The complaints must be analyzed and interpreted and answered in an appropriate manner.

-To discuss the importance of an organized and systematic approach to complaint management among nuclear medicine staff. We describe methods to answer patient complaints and offer service recovery.-To provide an overview of the elements of complaint management and reporting in the nuclear medicine department.

Methods: Complaint quality and quantity can be strong predictors of the quality of care and outcomes that are being provided by a service. Thus the importance of addressing, analyzing, and implementing change in response to complaints can be a useful process for the betterment of any particular department. Hence, it is important to have a consistent strategy to evaluate complaints.

Results: Our findings indicated a necessary commitment to three main steps in complaint management which are to do with patient-facing radiology subspecialties: collection, review, and adjustment. Within each of these steps, there are principles that can optimize health systems improvements from complaint management. Evidence has shown that expanding communication by including user-friendly modalities such as cell phones, allowing family members to fill out complaint forms and surveys, and providing easy access to feedback services have augmented quality improvement. Complaints are best analyzed when a taxonomic classification is given to the types of complaints and quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to analyze providers. Additionally, scheduling time and having the appropriate staff to address complaints help systems improve. Adjustments to complaints should consider the aggregate of feedback both positive and negative and should be communicated to complaining parties.

Conclusions: In an increasingly complex environment, it is important to provide access to feedback, analyze and quantify them, and implement appropriate changes. Complaints should be addressed before the sun sets each day otherwise runs the risk of negative impact. We discuss the role of complaint management in the nuclear medicine department and all staff to resolve.

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS