Patient Reviews and Complaints: What Do I Do?

Are your patients starting to review your practice online? If so, it is hard to know what the best approach is to address some of the negative concerns they might have.

Patient Reviews Are An Opportunity For Improvement

Complaints and reviews are actually the one patient-centred measure that stands above all others because they come directly from your patients to your practice. The good news is that your patients are probably already telling you where the frustrations are in your practice. The bad news is that most frontline healthcare staff don’t listen or if they do, don’t respond appropriately to the amazing insights your patients are sharing with you.

Online reviews are the modern ‘word of mouth’ for sharing feedback and recommendations and patients are seeing your practice just like any other service or product and reviewing it accordingly. Today’s patients are smart, savvy and informed and like it or not, up to 60% of patients are using reviews to influence their choice of healthcare professionals or practises.

Healthcare providers need to embrace reviews and feedback and see them as an opportunity to improve their services and overall patient experience.

Where Are You Being Reviewed?

You might not be aware of it, but chances are your healthcare professionals and/or your practice are being reviewed by your patients online.

In Australia, there are already a wide number of specific healthcare review sites where your patients might be providing feedback on your practice, but they may also be leaving reviews on general consumer sites like Yelp and Google.

Some common sites include:

How to respond to online patient reviews

It is always difficult to receive negative feedback and reviews about your healthcare service, particularly if you think they are unwarranted. If a negative online review is the first you are hearing of a particular issue within your practice, it usually highlights a deeper issue around not having sufficient opportunities in place within your current patient experience that invites your patients to provide feedback.

Download our ‘Dealing with patient reviews and feedback’ fact sheet to learn more.

So, should you respond to a negative online review?

Yes! If any patient has taken the time to provide you with feedback on your practice, good or bad, then you should acknowledge it with a response.

If the review is positive, then thank the patient for taking the time to review your practice.

If the review is negative, our top tips for responding include:

Respond in a timely fashion
Empathise with the patient
Take it offline where possible
Provide an actual explanation – don’t just fob them off.

So, should you respond to a negative online review?

Yes! If any patient has taken the time to provide you with feedback on your practice, good or bad, then you should acknowledge it with a response.

If the review is positive, then thank the patient for taking the time to review your practice.

If the review is negative, our top tips for responding include:

Respond in a timely fashion
Empathise with the patient
Take it offline where possible
Provide an actual explanation – don’t just fob them off.

Contact us to Start Your Patient-Care Journey Today

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Addressing Patient Reviews and Complaints