I’m not sure who deals with patient complaints in your organization, but handling them is not a pleasant task. Even though it is not pleasant, the person dealing with the complaint has an opportunity to turn a bad situation into a positive result and can gain much practice credibility and patient loyalty if the complaint is handled correctly.
From time to time, we all have those patients who can’t ever be satisfied and we have those staff members who seem to give patients a less than “rosy” perception of our practices. This inevitably will end up with the patient who demands to speak to someone “in charge” to lodge a complaint. Complaining patients can be quite a challenge, but I would like to offer a few ways to help you better handle those complaints.
First of all, give the complaint your full attention. If the complaint is in-person, take the patient to a private area where you will not be distracted by telephones or interruptions, preferably not your private office. If they are calling by telephone, give the call your full attention by allowing the time you anticipate it will take to handle the complaint. I have found that the best way to handle a complaint is to steer the patient’s responses by asking frequent questions during the conversation. Utilize these questions to calm the situation and also to frame the complaint to make sure that you understand why the patient is upset. Asking frequent questions also keeps the conversation on task and will keep the emotions that can come out during a complaint from building.
Listen closely while the patient complains, making sure that you understand what went on and accept responsibility for the situation without casting blame on your practice or personnel. Ask exactly why the situation upset the patient. Ascertain whether the patient is upset due to new policies, procedures, regulations or just by the mood of the personnel that they encountered. Allow the patient ample time to express their feelings, but keep the flow of the conversation on your terms, not theirs. Don’t allow them to be verbally abusive or threatening in their complaint. It is never acceptable for a patient to be abusive to you or your staff, and we have discharged patients for verbal abuse and threatening behavior.
After the patient has expressed their feelings, ask them what you can do to help them in this situation. If you need to get more information before you can properly assess the situation, let the patient know that you will need time to further evaluate what went on. Listen to the patient’s request patiently and even if they are requesting or asking something that you can’t necessarily change or help them with, do not inform them of this at the time of the complaint. This information will be best shared once the emotion of the situation has had a chance to die down.
Close the conversation by thanking the patient for communicating their concerns for you. Let them know that your top priority is making sure that patients are satisfied with the way they are treated at your facility. Give the person a date certain as to when they will be contacted about resolution or further conversation about the situation. Let the person know that they will be contacted and most likely who will be contacting them.
We all will have those patients who cannot ever be satisfied, but even if they can’t be satisfied, you don’t have to fight with them over it. By framing and defining the problem and taking ownership of the complaint, you can dissolve much of the stress of the immediate circumstances. Getting the patient’s input in to what will make them happy in the situation helps to empower the patient. Closing with an expectation of the patient on future contact will help diffuse the emotions and give the patient anticipation that they are being taken seriously. Giving the patient an assurance that they will be called will assist in giving closure to the complaint.