How should a Swiss clinic handle incidents and complaints?

Geneva requires every health institution to record incidents in writing with corrective and preventive measures, and its commission de surveillance hears patient complaints, often through mediation first. Zurich asks for error and complaint handling in the Betriebskonzept, and providers billing basic insurance need an internal reporting and learning system.

What the law requires

Geneva's Loi sur la santé requires health institutions to take the measures needed to record incidents that occur in their care, and lets the department carry out quality controls.¹ Its regulation requires incidents to be reported in writing and, where needed, to lead to corrective and preventive measures, and the médecin responsable must report any breach of the law in the establishment to the médecin cantonal immediately.² Zurich's Merkblatt asks the operating concept to cover error and complaint management, for patients and staff.³ For providers billing basic insurance, article 58g KVV requires an internal reporting and learning system and, where one exists, membership of a national network for reporting adverse events.⁴

Some events go beyond the clinic. Zurich's law requires health professionals to report to the police without delay any extraordinary death, including one after an accident, a crime or a treatment error and its late effects.⁵

How a Geneva complaint runs

A patient, or the person entitled to decide care on their behalf, can file a complaint with the commission de surveillance des professions de la santé et des droits des patients, which can also act on its own initiative or on a report from the department, professionals, institutions or individuals.⁶ Where there is no overriding public interest, the commission's bureau proposes mediation, and the parties have 3 months to agree.⁶ Where a patient's rights were breached, the commission can issue a binding order or a finding, and for breaches of the health law a warning, a reprimand or a fine up to CHF 20,000.⁶

1. Make the patient safe. Treat, inform and record what happened, in the record, at the time.
2. Write the incident report. What happened, when, who was involved, and the immediate action, signed and dated.
3. Report where the law requires. To the police for an extraordinary death in Zurich, to the médecin cantonal for a breach of law in Geneva.
4. Review from the record. Build the timeline from the notes and the audit trail, with times and names.
5. Decide corrective and preventive measures. Each with an owner and a date, as Geneva's regulation asks.
6. Answer the patient. In the language they wrote in, with what was found and what changes.
7. Learn across the clinic. Feed the finding into the reporting and learning system and the next quality review.

1. Date and time ______ Site ______
2. Patient reference ______
3. What happened ______
4. Immediate action ______
5. Reported to the canton or police on ______
6. Corrective measure, owner and date ______
7. Preventive measure, owner and date ______
8. Patient informed on ______ by ______

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Questions

How does wai support an incident review?

wai gives each review its evidence, from the audit trail, the signed note and the patient's conversation.

Who hears patient complaints in Geneva?

The commission de surveillance des professions de la santé et des droits des patients, which often proposes mediation first.

What can the Geneva commission decide?

A binding order or a finding for a breach of patient rights, and a warning, reprimand or fine up to CHF 20,000 for a breach of the health law.

Do we need a reporting and learning system?

To bill basic insurance, yes, article 58g KVV requires an internal reporting and learning system.

Sources

1. 1République et canton de Genève, SILGENEVE, 2026Loi sur la santé (LS), K 1 03, du 7 avril 2006Read source
2. 2République et canton de Genève, SILGENEVE, 2025Règlement sur les institutions de santé (RISanté), K 2 05.06, du 9 septembre 2020Read source
3. 3Kanton Zürich, Gesundheitsdirektion, 2024Merkblatt Betriebsbewilligung für ambulante ärztliche Institutionen, September 2024Read source
4. 4Fedlex, Swiss Confederation, 2026Verordnung über die Krankenversicherung (KVV), SR 832.102, consolidated 1 August 2026Read source
5. 5Kanton Zürich, Zürcher Gesetzessammlung, 2026Gesundheitsgesetz (GesG) vom 2. April 2007, LS 810.1, in force from 1 January 2026Read source
6. 6République et canton de Genève, SILGENEVE, 2024Loi sur la commission de surveillance des professions de la santé et des droits des patients (LComPS), K 3 03Read source

Written by the wai team from Cantonal health authorities of Zurich and Geneva guidance, checked on 16 October 2026. This is guidance, not legal advice. Neither the Zurich Gesundheitsdirektion nor Geneva's department of health endorses wai or any software.