Empirical Evidence on Violations of Patient Rights in the Republic of Slovenia

Abstract

The objective of the study was to: a) Analyse the causes of patient complaints on a large sample of the population of the Republic of Slovenia, and b) Develop a discrete simulation model used for the handling of patient complaints. Data obtained from the survey (N=1195), was used in the determination of parameters while legislation in the field of patient rights was employed to determine the structure of the simulation model. The model was used to simulate activities for different categories and paths of complaints. The most commonly identified causes of patient complaints were identified as follows: violation of legislative stipulations (93.6%), deterioration of health (93.1%), suspected improper treatment (91.7%), staff unavailability (91.1%), disregard of violations (90.9%) and loss of documentation (89.4%). Through improved transparency and safe electronic access, the simulation of patient complaints process enables feedback for policy makers to foster the quality of healthcare services.