title: [Not Available].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate changes in quality over a 5-year period from the perspective of patients, in an attempt to meet their expectations in a new hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  The procedure takes as a reference the results of an opinion survey carried out in the hospital in 2001 and compares these results with those of annual surveys and completes them with information from written complaints and demands for accountability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the period studied, 821 surveys (a response rate of 22.3%), 3,756 complaints and 105 demands for administrative accountability were received and processed. The surveys revealed a degree of satisfaction of 96%, and study of the changes detected significant differences in comfort and response capacity. The most common reasons for complaints were medical transport (15.3%), delays in receiving care (12.6%), and waiting lists (9.3%). The main reasons for demands for accountability (only 20% of which were accepted) were death or serious secondary outcomes (59%), and the principal causes were related to omissions (42.9%) or malpractice (22.9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients' opinions tended to worsen slightly over the 5-year period studied, related to their increased expectations. Although the reasons for making complaints and demands were independent of the problems identified in patients' opinions and showed different dimensions, there were certain areas of overlap. Greater efforts are required in the area of emergency services and, of course, in problems related to comfort, improvement of which is easily achievable and evident with the inauguration of the new hospital.
authors.affiliation: Gerencia. Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro. Madrid. España.
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Fernández
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramón Martínez
authors.forename: Dolors
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Montserrat-Capella
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sainz
authors.forename: Matilde
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cebrián
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Artiaga
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Muñoz