Objectives: To study the process of complaint management, characteristics of complaints, and results of management.

Study design: Analytical descriptive study.

Materials and methods: Patient complaints at Songklanagarind Hospital between the fiscal year of 2000 and 2011 were analyzed using the data retrieved from the complaint registry, the medical records, and related hospital documents.

Results: The complaint management consisted of 4 steps as follows: 1) complaint registration; 2) treatment and patient support; 3) event investigation; and 4) communication and settlement. During the 12-year period, there were 381 complaints. The three most common complaint issues were communication, service behavior, and service access. The speciallies common involved were Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Pediatrics. The common reasons for complaint lodging were making known their suffering, asking for corrective action to prevent a recurrence, and medical care assistance. There was 8 complaints about taking care of the dead body. Most of the complaints (97.9%) could be settled by the hospital complaint management system. Complaints that were difficult to settle were related to patients’ severe adverse outcomes. The unsettled cases which proceeded further to mass media or a legal settlement caused much pressures to the health care and hospital management team.

Conclusions: Effective complaint management was a benefit to patients, hospital and healthcare team.

Key words: characteristic, complaint management, patient, result