To the Editor: We noted with interest the recent publication by Bismark and colleagues1 about complaint-prone doctors in Victoria. This research makes a valuable contribution to the important task of identifying practitioners who are at high risk of delivering poor quality health care. Similar analysis of more than 32 000 complaints received in Queensland from 1992 to 2010 has been undertaken by the Health Quality and Complaints Commission (HQCC). A summary of this work, which was performed in collaboration with the Medical Board of Queensland, was presented recently.2
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- 1. Bismark MM, Spittal MJ, Studdert DM. Prevalence and characteristics of complaint-prone doctors in private practice in Victoria. Med J Aust 2011; 195: 25-28. <MJA full text>
- 2. Ward M, Pulsford P, Johnstone P. The characteristics of doctors who generate multiple patient complaints to a regulatory agency. Proceedings of the 27th International Conference, International Society for Quality in Health Care; 2010 Oct 10-13; Paris, France. http://www.isqua. org/abstract-conference/paris-2010-quality-outcomes-achieving-patient-improvement/wednesday-13th-october-morning.htm%20C9 (accessed Nov 2011).
- 3. Stern DT, Frohna AZ, Gruppen LD. The prediction of professional behaviour. Med Educ 2005; 39: 75-82.
- 4. Papadakis MA, Teherani A, Banach MA, et al. Disciplinary action by medical boards and prior behavior in medical school. N Engl J Med 2005; 353: 2673-2682.
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