Patients come in many shapes and sizes. So do their complaints – from the seemingly trivial to the ones that will obviously trigger a malpractice lawsuit. A practice that masters the management and methods of complaint resolution is ahead of the game in avoiding grievances, medical board complaints, or worse, the courtroom.
The root of patient complaints was recently identified as a failure to recognize and manage patient expectations. Many complaints and malpractice lawsuits are rooted in the patients’ failure to understand the expected results and risks about their health care.
When expectations are not met, the assumption is that the unexpected result is the product of error, not a realized risk and complication of treatment. This places the burden on the physicians or the health care teams to explain or “disclose” why they were not negligent with their care or why the patient’s expectations were unrealistic.
Risk Strategies
A medical practice is a business, and with any business, customer service and satisfaction are inherent elements.
- Do you have a system in place to identify and capture patient complaints?
- Is your staff encouraged to report problems and negative patient comments they observe or receive?
- Do you have staff with the social skills and experience in complaint resolution?
Many staff members see their role as “running interference” between doctor and patient to protect them from unnecessary phone calls or “troublesome” patients. Patients who learn their doctor will not listen will find an attorney who will.
Expectation Management and Consent
If managing patient expectations is the means of decreasing patient complaints, then consent is an important aspect of expectation management. Consent discussions have evolved to the most crucial event in managing your patient’s care. An intelligent assessment of the patient’s understanding of the expected results and its risks in the pretreatment phase is the foundation for managing any complaints that follow. The failure to embrace this concept means an increased risk of finding yourself before the Medical board or worse – the courtroom.
Develop and encourage a patient-centered culture in which patient safety includes both managing patient expectations and preserving patient satisfaction and customer service. Consider using patient satisfaction surveys as a tool to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and identify ways to improve what you do and how you do it.
Evidence supports that happy patients don’t complain, and patients who understand a complication of care is not an “unexpected” result don’t sue.
Author Lee McMullin is a certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management with more than 25 years of experience in claims and risk management. He is part of the CAP Cares Team which supports the CAPAssurance program offering hospitals, large medical groups, and other health care facilities top-rated risk management services. He is also the President of the Southern California Association for Healthcare Risk Management (SCAHRM).
If you have questions about this article, please contact us. This information should not be considered legal advice applicable to a specific situation. Legal guidance for individual matters should be obtained from a retained attorney.