The aim of this study is to identify the development of patient rights in Turkey and to analyze patient complaints in the country. An attempt was made to determine how the issues discussed in patient rights committees are differentiated from the applications made to the patient rights units of the hospitals within the body of Ministry of Health in 2009, depending on variables such as branch, province, region, hospital type, title, gender, and subject of application, 18,634 applications were content analysed after they were classified in terms of subject, unit, title, branch, province, and region, and were transformed into numerical codes to prepare the data for analysis. The results show on a regional basis that Marmara is in the first place with 34.9% and East Anatolia is in the last place with 4.6%. The unit receiving the most complaints is outpatient services with 43.1%. Regarding position title, specialists ranked first with 37.9% and managers ranked next with 11.3%. When reviewing the subjects of the applications, they are ranked as follows: (1) lack of benefiting from the services (44%); and (2) lack of receiving respect and comfort (26.8%). Patient rights violations were detected in 12.7% but not in 51.6% of the applications made.
