Herm Joosten
Herm Joosten

From medical complaint to legal claim: how to prevent escalation?

Hospitals are increasingly facing medical complaints that turn into legal claims. Herm Joosten, researcher and assistant professor of Marketing, says it is not so much because hospitals are making more mistakes, but because patients are becoming more assertive and standing up for their rights. Students Lisa Laponder, Nazlican Hayirli and Anne Thijssen, led by Herm Joosten and manager of Quality and Safety Paulien Ogink of Sint Maartenskliniek, investigated how, as an organisation, you can prevent a medical complaint from becoming a legal claim.

Indeed, there is every reason to prevent escalation, as an increase in complaints hinders doctors' medical functioning. According to Joosten, doctors start prescribing extra research just to avoid making the wrong diagnosis, then choosing the least risky treatment instead of the best.

Want to know more about this research or read the full article? Contact Herm Joosten (herm.joosten [at] ru.nl) or view the article here (behind a paywall): https://bit.ly/48vxgWd.

Interested in the master's specialisation Marketing? Take a look here: https://www.ru.nl/en/education/masters/marketing.