Abstract:

For improvement of healthcare service quality, consumer researches are mainly focused on satisfaction and loyalty. However, it is also essential to evaluate healthcare-related complaints for an improved service quality. Complaints are made through different communication means. With the advancement of internet, a new venue for complaints has emerged. People who face problems in healthcare services express their complaints over internet. This study aims to examine the complaints, related to health care providers in Turkey, made on the complaint web site (sikayetvar.com). For this purpose, the complaints were examined with content analysis which is a qualitative research method. A total of 1274 complaints made throughout 2018 were extracted to be evaluated. Complaints are classified according to gender of person making complaint, province where the complaints were made, type of health service provider with which complaints were encountered, month of complaint and complaint issues. According to the results of the analysis, behavioral complaints, lack of health care services and waiting issues are the leading problems. In addition, it was found that most complaints were related to health service providers in Istanbul and Ankara provinces, women complained more than men, public hospitals complained more, and most complaints were made in January and July. According to the results of correspondence analysis, the health ministry institutions received more complains about behavioral problems, lack of staff and lack of knowledge, lack of health services and privacy, while private health institutions received complains about price and safety. It is observed that university research hospitals received more complains about lack of physical infrastructure, waiting times, ethics and hygiene. As a result of the study, issues around which the complaints revolved were determined. The type of complaints received for different health care service providers were explored.

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