As any business dental clinic may face with customers that are not satisfied with rendered services. However, such complaints may be useful for your practice! How it can be? Find out in the article below! Here are top 7 key points that would help you to get some benefit from patients’ complaints.
1. PREVENTION
For successful practice, it is necessary to improve communication and interaction with patients. This is quite important point, because friendly relationship with patients may not only improve the image of your dental clinic, but also help to prevent future complaints, even if dental treatment was carried out not well enough. Remember that friendly attitude to patients is a key to complaints prevention.
2. ANALYSIS
Another point is further analysis of your patients’ complaints. Some managers believe that patients make complaints in order to annoy the dental clinic personnel. In most cases, patients complain of unsatisfied dental treatment. However, do not consider such claims from negative point of view, because all of them would help you to improve your clinic and customer service. Instead of being offended by patients’ complaints, you should consider them, because you can only learn on your own mistakes. Remember that mistakes in practice are okay, if they only ever happened once.
3. RECORDING
Another tip for dealing with complaints in dentistry is to improve recording. If the patient's complaint was not in your notes, it did not happen. Moreover, to prevent missing of patients’ complaints, you can use online form. Emphasize this point to dental clinic personnel.
4. FEEDBACK
In addition, it is necessary to pay special attention to feedback of the patients who were unsatisfied with your dental clinic services. It is rare case when patients make complains because they are bored. Moreover, each claim has its cause. For example, the patient could leave a complaint that the dentist was too hurry during treatment, or he/she did not provide adequate treatment plan or poorly explained one of its point. This is a result of dental care poor level. If you ignore it, this issue will have a negative impact on your clinic image. Rather than ignore the negative reviews, try to encourage patients. It is necessary to deal with each unsatisfied patient in order to prevent further complains in future. In order to communicate with patients you can use forms or forums, where your patients can leave comments about your clinic.
5. PERSONNEL TRAINING
This useful tip is likely to help preventing complaints and claims of the patients. Consider all possible options for your staff training at work place. This may be short-term courses on such specific topics as increase of clinical qualification, improvement of communication skills, basics of leadership and business doing. Moreover, you have a chance even to train the patients. You can explain what they can expect from treatment, the upsides and downsides, what is their dental health status, their role and responsibilities in their treatment and maintenance. Thanks to well-trained personnel, your clinic will provide high level of dental care.
6. IMPROVING COMPLAINT FILING PROCEDURES
As in other areas of business, there are third parties, who are interested in how you manage patients’ complaints. It is important for you to consider each application in compliance with rules of health authorities in your country. You can find more information on the web sites of health care authorities of your country.
7. TEAM INVOLVEMENT
If the patient has left the complaint, you should inform all staff of dental clinic about this. After all, the staff was a reason for such complain. One of the most common reasons for patients’ complaints is a lack of understanding between the patient and the clinic staff. You can solve this issue by making nurses and receptionists as treatment coordinators.
