Characterization of complaints of medical professional responsibility, issued by Dirección de Medicina Forense in Tegucigalpa

Abstract

Introduction: The failures related to the professional performance, have a negative impact on the patients and in some cases lead to their death. Complaints are a way for patients and their families to express dissatisfaction with the service received, as well as an opportunity for continuous improvement if they are analyzed, not only from a legal perspective. Objective: To characterize of complaints of medical professional responsibility issued by the Dirección de Medicina Forense in Tegucigalpa. Methodology: A retrospective-descriptive study of 89 complaints for medical professional responsibility of live and dead subjects was conducted during the period 2010 to 2015 by the Dirección de Medicina Forense in Tegucigalpa, considering the factors: From the victims: Age, sex, education. From the complainant: Age, sex, reason for complaint, relation to the victim, place of origin. From the accused: Age, sex, workplace, employment history, medical specialty. Results: Only 5.61% of the complaints corresponded to cases of medical professional responsibility, 20% of those were due to inexcusable lack of knowledge and 80% due to medical care omission. Gyneco-obstretics was the most reported specialty with 30%. Of those accused, 77.6% worked in a Public institution, the conflict in the doctor-patient relationship was the most frequent cause of complaint (40.4%). Conclusions: The characteristics of the allegations studied show that doctors who were close to 50 years old and had more than 15 years of experience, who worked in public centers received the most complaints, gyneco-obstretics, orthopedics and general surgery, were the specialties that received most of complaints; The most common complaints were related to the doctor-patient-family relationship, the disagreement with the diagnostic and the lack of professional ethic were adverse comments directed towards colleagues or the institutions