Are complaints fact-based, or unfounded?
Are complaints fact-based, or unfounded?
If you sometimes feel as though every complaint in the hospital is directed at your department, you may not be that far off. "I believe that because patient access is the starting point for patients, we tend to receive complaints for the whole organization," says Maureen Moreno, manager of the patient access financial services contact center at Danbury (CT) Hospital.
Even if complaints are exaggerated or misdirected, though, they still need to be reviewed and resolved. "Untrue or not, we need to get to the heart of the issue," says Moreno.
Even if a complaint pertains to another department, it is still reviewed by the patient access department. Access staff assist in brainstorming to see if they can help to come up with solutions.
"All complaints need to be responded to ASAP. Whether it's the patient or a department, everyone is our customer," says Moreno. "We stop what we are doing, research what took place, and bring all parties involved into the conversation so that we understand the true issue."
The next step, of course, is to figure out what could have been done better. "Always be willing to say you are sorry," says Moreno. "Always follow up with whomever made the complaint to let them know you heard them, and have made changes based on them sharing their feedback with you."
Service recovery is given on the spot, including Dunkin' Donuts gift cards or hospital dollars for lunch or coffee. Patients may leave satisfied after these actions are taken, but other departments can be more complicated. Their complaints can occasionally get to the ears of hospital administrators, for example. In this situation, Moreno says she would contact the department manager directly.
"I would ask him or her to please share their concerns with me, so we can go over the complaint in detail," says Moreno. She says that to achieve resolution of a complaint, you cannot take it personally.
"Establish relationships with the departments and managers, so that you can pick up the phone and ask direct questions," says Moreno. "Show that you are approachable and will listen to their concerns."
Truth is revealed
All of the calls received by Danbury's patient access staff are recorded. This has proved to be very helpful when complaints are received from physicians' offices and departments.
"They say there are always three sides to a story his, hers, and the truth," Moreno says. "We can go back and listen to what was actually said. A complaint may be blown out of proportion."
One complaint involved a call that came in to schedule a service for a child. The clinical department was angry with patient access because all the information they had stated that the mother, not the child, was the patient. On the day of the test, they were expecting the mother to come in, and instead it was a young child.
The recorded call revealed, though, that staff specifically asked who the patient was, and the mother responded that it was herself. Without the recorded call as proof, says Moreno, "whoever scheduled that person might have felt they did something wrong, when in fact they didn't. We had all parties involved listen to the call recording. This put the department at ease, and assured them that we know what we are doing."
[For more information, contact:
Maureen Moreno, Manager, Patient Access Financial Services Contact Center, Danbury (CT) Hospital. Phone: (203) 730-5822. Fax: (203) 739-8851. E-mail: [email protected].]
If you sometimes feel as though every complaint in the hospital is directed at your department, you may not be that far off. "I believe that because patient access is the starting point for patients, we tend to receive complaints for the whole organization," says Maureen Moreno, manager of the patient access financial services contact center at Danbury (CT) Hospital.Subscribe Now for Access
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