An evaluation of calls made to ministry of health communication center

Abstract

The Objective of the Study: The objective of this study was to analyze and evaluate the complaint calls made between the years of 2004 and 2009 to the Communication Center of The Ministry of Health that was founded within the framework of "The Transformation in Healthcare Project" and thus to make a contribution by providing an introducing general view of the functionality of the feedback mechanism. The Method: The sample of the study consists of 686.397 appeal calls that were made to the Ministry of Health's Communication Center between the years 2004 and 2009. The complaints have been studied in relation to a range of factors like the months of the complaints, the hour of the day, the days of the week, the age groups of the complainers, gender, and type of the complaint and the reason of complaint. Findings: By answering not only to health related appeals, but also to virtually any issue of interest for the citizens, SABIM achieved a plural involvement of the stakeholders and an "interactive administration". It realized feedback mechanisms that enabled the real-time assessment of services as they were being supplied, thus eliminating many problems that arise from lack of communication.