Identification of practitioners at high risk of complaints to health profession regulators

MJ Spittal; MM Bismark; DM Studdert

Journal article

Identification of practitioners at high risk of complaints to health profession regulators

MJ Spittal, MM Bismark, DM Studdert

BMC Health Services Research | BMC | Published : 2019

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-019-4214-y

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Abstract

Background: Some health practitioners pose substantial threats to patient safety, yet early identification of them is notoriously difficult. We aimed to develop an algorithm for use by regulators in prospectively identifying practitioners at high risk of attracting formal complaints about health, conduct or performance issues. Methods: Using 2011 - 2016 data from the national regulator of health practitioners in Australia, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of 14 registered health professions. We used recurrent-event survival analysis to estimate the risk of a complaint and used the results of this analysis to develop an algorithm for identifying practitioners at high risk of complain..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Matthew Spittal Author

Marie Bismark Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (1092933) and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Matthew Spittal is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (project number FT180100075) funded by the Australian Government. The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study, the collection, analysis, interpretation of results or preparation of the manuscript.