Guide to HCAT

Step 1:

Read through the HCAT manual.

The manual provides instructions on how to use the Healthcare Complaints Analysis Tool (HCAT) to analyse complaints from patients and families regarding poor healthcare experiences.

View manual

Reading the HCAT manual
Online HCAT training

Step 2:

Use the online HCAT training to become familiar with how to apply the tool.

Any person codifying complaints using the HCAT framework should do the training and periodic training refreshment is recommended to ensure that coders remain calibrated.

HCAT's category-level coding has proved highly reliable across countries and languages. Judging severity and harm is the hardest part — complete the training before coding real complaints, and refresh it periodically.

Start training

Step 3:

Analyse data codified using HCAT. There is an online tool that can help with graphing data.

We recommend a two step analysis:
1) quantitatively identify trends for in-depth analysis
2) qualitatively analyse complaints associated with the identified trend.

Analyse data

Analysing HCAT data
Example HCAT report

Step 4:

Produce a report or dashboard that can inform learning. Here is an example report.

This report should combine the high-level quantitative trends and benchmarking with in-depth qualitative analysis of the identified trends.

Download report template