I recently saw a patient who told me that she changed her doctor because even though he was very competent, she was fed up of having to wait for over 60 minutes every time to see him. I am sure this is a common complaint, but there was no safe mechanism by which she could let her doctor know why she was unhappy with him or that she planned to leave. This means that he never had a chance to improve his practise; as a result of which not only do his patients continue to remain unhappy with him, he never makes an attempt to improve, because he is blissfully unaware of the problem ( since he has a waiting room full of waiting patients).
Customer feedback is vitally important for all service industries - and especially suggestions from unhappy customers. It is only by responding to complaints that organisations can improve.
Even though medicine is a service industry, it's very disheartening to note that doctors don't make any concerted effort to collect and analyse patient feedback. This would be extremely valuable in helping them to improve their bedside manners ! After all, every complaint is a gift !
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