How to Deal with Complaints in Healthcare
Published: 06 August 2019
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Published: 06 August 2019
Complaints are an integral part of ensuring quality healthcare provision.
Knowing how to deal with complaints is crucial for professional growth, but handling the complaints of patients or their visitors can often be complicated and hard to navigate.
This article addresses the best way to manage common complaints in healthcare settings. A common complaint is one that can be mitigated at a local level (i.e. the unit).
The following advice is not applicable for complaints alleging criminal behaviour nor complaints that relate to breaches in code of conduct.
The way in which a practice handles a complaint determines whether or not the practice can claim to be safe and responsive. Providers with efficient complaint-handling processes are best positioned to manage complaints quickly and with ease. (HCC 2019)
An effective complaint-handling process creates opportunities to restore confidence in your services, increases quality as a result of feedback and prevents minor issues from escalating into bigger problems. (HCC 2019)
(Cusack 2019).
Of course, blame and complaints occur in most workplaces, but healthcare settings are particularly fraught with emotion and fear, and often high expectations on the part of the consumer. (Suter 2017).
Your job isn’t to put consumers in their place, but rather, to learn from and reach closure on the complaint as quickly as possible.
Put yourself in their shoes: attending hospital (or another healthcare setting) is a significant emotional event for both patients and their visitors.
People who are unwell are particularly vulnerable, and visitors and relatives may be anxious and overly protective.
All will consider their complaint issues to be serious, therefore all issues should be dealt with accordingly.
Generally speaking, handling complaints well is underpinned by engaging with consumers about their concerns and working to understand the resolutions they are seeking.
Communication issues are responsible for the majority of complaints, and in a lot of cases, complainants are simply looking for either an explanation or apology. (HCC 2019).
Another common motivation behind complaints is to prevent the same thing happening to others. This is why it is crucial to acknowledge complaints promptly and let people know what is being done to prevent it from happening again. (HCC 2019).
When managing complaints from a relative, friend or another visitor of a patient, try to be as approachable as possible.
Consider holding a meeting away from the noise and bustle of the ward somewhere that is conducive to a confidential conversation. Assess whether it is necessary for the patient to also be present in the room.
In case the situation escalates, ensure that other staff members know where you are holding the meeting. Consider whether it may be worth having another staff member, or security, present and position yourself safely, between the complainant and the door.
Turn off pagers and mobile phones if possible, sit at the same level as the complainant and make sure to maintain a calm and even voice.
(Cusack 2019)
(Suter 2017)
Record all complaints, detailing at a minimum:
(Suter 2017)
Remember that complaints handling is often targeted by accreditation assessors and concise records will be very useful in this situation, especially when an outcome can show an improved process along the way. (Suter 2017).
For managers or supervisors, it is vital that the staff trust that you will treat them respectfully and with discretion when questioning their actions and that you and the staff member plan a suitable improvement plan together. Remind staff of the ratio of complaints to compliments, as in most cases the compliments outweigh the complaints. (Suter 2017).
Healthcare professionals are advised to seek out the following for further advice:
The Health Complaints Commissioner (Hcc.vic.gov.au) is the destination for impartial complaints resolution in Victoria, the website provides:
Remember that complaints are to be expected in all healthcare settings, it is not whether you receive complaints, but how you handle them that reflects your practice. Know that there is ample support and resources available to you in the event of receiving a complaint.
Ausmed’s Editorial team is committed to providing high-quality and thoroughly researched content to our readers, free of any commercial bias or conflict of interest. All articles are developed in consultation with healthcare professionals and peer reviewed where necessary, undergoing a yearly review to ensure all healthcare information is kept up to date. See Educator Profile
Very helpful
it was great insight into how to deal with aggressive pts
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