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News spotlight: ‘I’m not complaining, but…’
29th Sep 2009
According to recent research, a quarter of dental patients (26%) have wanted to complain about their dental care but didn't.
So, based on this finding, consider this: a quarter of the patients at your practice have had a concern about their dental care but didn't complain.
A third have complained, but of those, half felt that you didn't resolve their complaint satisfactorily. Therefore, just one third of your patients have never had cause to complain.
These statistics are according to a survey by the Dental Complaints Service (DCS).
"It's certainly better to have a complaint out in the open for you to resolve, rather than out on the street, where it can be shared with a dozen or more potential patients among family and friends," Hazel Adams, head of the DCS
Of the dental patients surveyed, a third (37%) had complained about some aspect of their dental care, says the DCS, which is free to use and which has helped resolve more than 5,000 complaints about private dental care since its launch three years ago.
Half (53%) of those in the survey who did complain to their dental practice felt their complaint wasn't resolved satisfactorily.
In the last three years, the DCS has received more than 20,000 calls and the facility can also advise on where to go with complaints about NHS dentistry.
The DCS was set up by, but is independent of, the General Dental Council (GDC).
In the survey, the DCS asked whether respondents had ever complained, and crucially, whether they had wanted to complain, but hadn't. What was interesting was that almost as many patients had wanted to complain compared with those who actually did – a quarter of patients, compared to a third.
What it suggests is that one in four of the patients at your practice has a potential complaint that you should be identifying and tackling. Really? One in four? Perhaps – it may be fewer, it may be more. What is certain is that a lot of patients think that they have had cause to complain.
Adding up the figures
Although the DCS considers mainly complaints about private dental care – though they can also consider mixed NHS/private complaints – the DCS surveyed NHS and private dental patients, partly because patients often don't know which side of the fence they're on.
Of those who complained, the most common reasons were:
• 13% felt they were receiving ‘treatment that didn't fix the problem'
• 12% the cost of treatment
• 8% treatment that went wrong
• 7% inconvenient appointment times
• 6% receiving treatment that didn't seem necessary
• 6% an unspecified ‘other reason'. Some respondents nominated more than one reason.
What about patients who wanted to complain but didn't? Their most common (unvoiced) concerns were:
• 33% the cost of treatment
• 14% ineffective treatment
• 13% inconvenient appointments
• 13% unnecessary treatment.
So, why didn't people complain? This is perhaps where practices have most to learn, initially. Most common reasons not to complain were because:
• 35% it wouldn't ‘be worth it'
• 17% patients lacked confidence
• 15% feared ‘negative comeback'
• 9% implied they didn't know where to take their complaint.
Ten per cent of those surveyed – 12 per cent of men and eight per cent of women – never went to the dentist. Men who did and complained were more likely (49%) to be satisfied than women (44%). A third (37%) of dental patients had never wanted to complain.
The DCS commissioned the survey because they wanted to find out whether dental patients were satisfied with their care, and if they weren't, whether they complained, and about what.
What's your reaction? You may object that your practice hasn't received complaints from a third of its patients, and you may be right: other practices, elsewhere, may be getting more than their ‘fair share' of complaints. We don't know what a ‘complaint' is. ‘Why aren't appointments running to time?' might be one – and we don't know how old some of these complaints are.
But here's an ideal opportunity to acknowledge that complaints are a fact of life. We all make mistakes and misjudgements. The point is how we deal with them.
You may have read the list of reasons why patients didn't complain and thought – well, that's patients for you. They lack the confidence to complain. They think it won't be worth it. They even fantasise about ‘negative comeback'!
Perhaps, it's your practice's role – your role – to address these issues. Give patients the confidence to complain. Ensure it's worth their while. Assure them you value complaints.
One of the principles set out in the General Dental Council (GDC) guidance, Standards for dental professionals, is to ‘put patients' interests first and act to protect them'. The guidance continues: ‘Give patients who make a complaint about the care or treatment they have received a helpful response at the appropriate time. Respect the patient's right to complain.'
That means ensuring that you have an effective complaints procedure where you work and that you follow it at all times, adds the guidance. It's sound advice. A complaint, by the way, is defined as “any expression of dissatisfaction by a patient (or their representative) about a dental service or treatment whether justified or not.”
Put like that, complaints can be useful to help identify weaknesses in the service you offer – and give you the opportunity to act on them.
We're here to help. In the last three years, the Dental Complaints Service has received more than 20,000 calls to its local rate 08456 120540 complaints hotline, and helped to resolve more than 5,000 complaints. Two thirds of complaints logged are resolved within a fortnight, benefiting patient and practice alike. Undoubtedly, the success of the DCS so far has been due in part to the commitment of dental professionals, who have engaged overwhelmingly positively.
A number of the complaints we have received – and helped to resolve – have been at the suggestion of dental professionals themselves. We can help particularly with complaints that have run their course within the practice, and now seem endless and intractable.
If you do nothing else, you should try to identify those one in four patients – perhaps fewer, maybe more – who wanted to complain but didn't.
Patient survey
When was the last time you did your own patient survey or even asked patients to complete a feedback form after a course of treatment?
It's certainly better to have a complaint out in the open for you to resolve, rather than out on the street, where it can be shared with a dozen or more potential patients among family and friends.
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