Service recovery in healthcare: Preventing medical complaint escalation
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2023-07-04
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en
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Providing healthcare is a complex and sensitive interaction between the organization, healthcare professionals, and patients. To provide and improve the quality of healthcare, it is important to obtain feedback from patients. Organizations should be aware of the importance of complaint-handling practices and prioritize this within the organization. In some cases, patient dissatisfaction can lead to complaint escalation. This type of escalation greatly impacts all parties involved. Therefore, the current study investigates service recovery in a medical context.
The goal of this study is to understand the process of complaint escalation to find out how to prevent it. Formally stated, the research question of this study is: What are the factors contributing to the escalation of medical complaints to claims, and how can this escalation be prevented?’. The main goal is to develop an escalation prevention tool that can be used by healthcare organizations to prevent complaint escalation. Based on a thorough literature review, a conceptual framework and expectations have been created. This has been done collaboratively by three researchers, who have worked together, but all wrote individual research reports. A qualitative, practice-oriented study has been conducted to gain information from complaint experts working in Dutch hospitals. The experts provided in-depth information, which led to valuable insights and knowledge about the factors influencing the escalation process and what could be done to prevent escalation from happening.
Based on the gathered data, an analysis was conducted. This analysis has led to the confirmation, rejection, or partial confirmation of the pre-formulated expectations. Based on the results of the study, the researchers have collaboratively developed practical recommendations. These practical recommendations include a tool for healthcare organizations, healthcare professionals, and complaint officers on how to prevent complaint escalation. The current study reveals some interesting insights. For example, it was found that a patient-centered manner of healthcare appears to be highly effective for preventing complaint escalation. Furthermore, results showed the huge impact of culture on complaint escalation.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen