by Vanessa Caceres, Ophthalmology Business Contributing Writer
Why do patients complain
seven private, community, or region-
al medical centers.
Study researchers divided the
ophthalmologists into the following
five age bands:
• 31 to 40 years old
• 41 to 50 years old
• 51 to 60 years old
• 61 to 70 years old
• 70 or older
Participants were followed from
the time employment began to when
they received their first complaint.
The unsolicited patient complaints
Led by Cherie Fathy, MD,
Vanderbilt Eye Institute, Nashville,
Tennessee, the retrospective cohort
study assessed time to a first com-
plaint between 2002 and 2015 for
1,342 attending ophthalmologists
or neuro-ophthalmologists who had
graduated from medical school be-
fore 2010. All of the physicians were
affiliated with an organization partic-
ipating in the Vanderbilt University
Medical Center's Patient Advocacy
Reporting System. The participants
practiced among 13 academic and
Study finds link between age
and unsolicited complaints
D
o you know what kinds of
complaints your practice
gets and who patients are
most likely to complain
about?
A study published in JAMA
Ophthalmology found that younger
ophthalmologists were more likely
to receive unsolicited patient com-
plaints compared with their more
seasoned colleagues.
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12 Ophthalmology Business • March 2018
