A disgruntled patient can easily lead to professional problems for you. The patient may report you or make a formal claim against you.
The best way to deal with a patient who is unhappy is to address the issue head-on at the time it happens, according to the Healthcare Providers Service Organization.
Communicate clearly
If you notice issues with a patient, you should take the time to communicate more clearly. This is a patient with which you will need to spend a little more time to smooth things over and ensure he or she walks away satisfied.
Make sure he or she understands the care plan and the reasons behind it. Sometimes, a patient gets upset because they do not understand how things work. For example, he or she may not understand that you cannot give lab results right away because you have to wait for the lab to return the results to you.
Never ignore something your patient says. Make sure to address everything he or she asks.
Identify the issue
It is also important to get to the bottom of why your patient is not happy. It is common for the real issue to be fear or unhappiness with the diagnosis, which are things you cannot control, but you can manage the patient better if you understand.
You should ask questions if your patient seems defiant to your treatment recommendations. Find out why he or she feels this way? You may uncover the patient does not think it is the right treatment. You can then discuss it and find an alternative or explain why this is what you recommend.
Make sure you figure out what is really going on. In most cases, you can. However, there may be times when someone just has a difficult personality. In that situation, you will have to figure out how to best appease the person while also offering the best treatment.
