Managing patient complaints to improve your practice

Background Increasing numbers of patient complaints to regulators suggest practices need effective systems to manage and address patient concerns. Many patient complaints can often be dealt with at a practice level, but patients can have difficulty reporting negative experiences directly.Objective This article explores the benefits of having a system to accept and deal with patient feedback within a practice and identifies barriers preventing patients from raising their concerns directly. Discussion Managing patient complaints weil at a practice level can prevent them escalating, as weil as offering insights to reduce risk and improve patient care. Understanding factors that inhibit patients from raising concerns, or prevent stall from being able to accept and deal with complaints, allows an opportunity for practices to implement strategies to address these barriers and support patients and stall Effective strategies inciude process improvements, as weil as cuitural changes and support for those managing a complaint process.