A Survey of the Complaints Entering the Medical Council Organization of Tehran in Three Time Periods: the Years Ending on 20 March 1992, 20 March 1997 and 20 March 2002

One of the most important occupational tensions a physician encounters in his/herpractice is the complaints lodged against him/her by the patients. the purpose of thisstudy is examining the complaints against physicians and dentists entering the medicalcouncil organization of tehran in the years ending on 20 march 1992, 20 march 1997 and20 march 2002 from the viewpoint of number, dispersion and inducing factors.the present study was performed as a descriptive and retrospective one with the aid of aquestionnaire containing concerned data. filling in the questionnaire or studying the filewas accomplished by a trustee expert of the medical council organization and the dataobtained were analyzed after classification.during a 3-year period, 832 complaints were lodged against physicians and dentists. thecomplaints against physicians in the years ending on 20 march 1997 and 20 march 2002were 70% more than that in the year ending on 20 march 1992. 83.1% of the physiciansand dentists of tehran that were sued had not been convicted until the date of theperformance of the study, on the basis of the contents of the files, and had no malpracticefrom the vantage point of the medical council organization. the most common causes ofcomplaints from the viewpoint of complainers were therapeutic errors (38%), neglect(30.2%), financial affairs (25.4%) and the physicians- lack of skill (17.7%). on the basis ofthis study, with the increase of the doctors practice track record and experience morethan 15- 20 years, the number of the complaints decreases and most of the complaints aree -against the middl]aged doctors/dentists with 10-20 years of experience.most physicians and dentists of tehran having been sued have not committed any wrongfrom the vantage point of the medical council organization experts and a large part of thecomplaints are a consequence of doctor-patient inconvenient interactions. a behaviorbased on professional commitment of the physician/dentist vis-a-vis the patient canhinder a major part of complaints.