Patient Complaint Systems from the Perspective of Healthcare Bioethics

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the complaint systems from the unique and crucial perspective of Healthcare Bioethics, a new theoretical branch of Clinical Bioethics developed in Latin America, in the Post-graduate Program in Bioethics of the University of Brasilia. Healthcare Bioethics, with its four main axes: Patients’ Rights, patient centrality, the partnership relationship between the actors in the clinical encounter, and clinical empathy, provides a comprehensive and ethical lens through which to view healthcare issues. Complaints in healthcare, considered complex narratives that reveal important information about the organization and exert important impacts on healthcare and the clinical relationship, are no exception. The methodological approach is theoretical and documental. The basis for the theoretical framework adopted by Healthcare Bioethics were the studies by Albuquerque and Albuquerque and Tanure, since they are precursors in Brazil to the research developed on the subject. The conclusions drawn are that organizations need to have complaint systems based on Healthcare Bioethics to contribute to the patients and their families feeling welcomed and recognizing patient centrality concerning the complaints presented. Finally, it is necessary to highlight the scarcity of studies that draw on this new paradigm of healthcare applied to the analysis of patient complaints.