Background:

Claims by health services users are a negative indicator of the care quality. To know the situations that originate them, and their consequences are key issues to consider in order to design strategies to improve the quality of health services. This study analyses the cases submitted to the National Medical Arbitration Commission with a final arbitration decision during the period 2011-2015, related to health service users younger than 15 years old.

Methods:

Cross-sectional descriptive study. We analyzed information extracted from the reports with a final arbitration decision in the last 5 years, selecting those where the affected users were younger than 15 years old.

Results:

A total of 40 cases arbitral award were found, most of them involving pediatric services, with a similar number of male and female users and a similar proportion in the extreme age groups, <1 year (32%) and 10-14 years (30%). The main cause of the complaint was related to diagnostic procedures (45%). An average of 8.7 adverse events per case were identified, most of them associated with procedures. Among the damages, there were 12 deaths and 9 permanent disabilities. There was evidence of malpractice in 65% of the cases and in 60% of the cases, the sentence was condemnatory.

Conclusions:

This manuscript shows information in four main sections: sociodemographic characteristics, description of medical care, adverse events and their repercussions on health damages, evaluation of the medical act and conclusions of the arbitration process.