Dealing with Dental Discontent: Strategies for Successful Complaint Resolution

About This Course

This course teaches dentists how to effectively handle patient complaints, understand legal obligations, and implement proactive patient management strategies to improve care. Includes case studies and group discussions.

Why Take This Course?

This course addresses a common problem that UK dental professionals face, which is handling patient complaints. Complaints can often lead to legal issues, damage to a dentist’s reputation, and a loss of patients. This course provides valuable insight into understanding and categorizing complaints, legal aspects of complaints, and effective communication skills. It also teaches proactive patient management and how to learn from complaints to sustain improvement. The use of case studies, scenario analysis, role-play, and group discussions makes it an interactive and effective course for dental professionals.

This course would be beneficial as it covers all aspects of handling complaints in the dental industry, including legal aspects and effective communication skills. It also includes practical activities such as role-playing and scenario analysis to help implement effective patient management.

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How This Course Supports GDC Enhanced Dental CPD

“Dental professionals have a duty to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. A primary qualification is only the first step in their education and development which should last throughout their professional life” General Dental Council

Learning Objectives	Anticipated Outcomes
1: By the end of this course, learners will be able to define, explain, and demonstrate the principles behind a complaint-resilient dental practice.	1: Upon completion of the course, participants are expected to exhibit an increased understanding and utilization of complaint-resilience strategies within their dental practices.
2: Upon completion, learners will have the capacity to create, implement, and manage a thorough and efficient complaints handling protocol for a dental practice.	2: As a result of this course, learners will likely contribute positively towards a more patient-centered, open, and improvisational culture in the dental health community.
3: Participants will demonstrate their ability to devise and execute a training plan to promote complaints resilience among staff, including strategies for communication skills, emotional intelligence, peer assessments, and group reflections.	3: The course should lead to an enhancement in learners’ skills in managing, resolving, and transforming complaints into avenues for continuous professional development.
4: By the final session, learners will have mastered the techniques of conducting regular audits to gauge the effectiveness of the complaints handling protocol and use the findings for continuous improvement.	4: In the wider context, the course aims to contribute to a shift in attitudes within the dental healthcare industry where complaints are seen as constructive criticism for the improvement of the practice.
5: At the course’s conclusion, attendees will have developed the competency to view and handle complaints in a constructive manner, seeing them as opportunities for improvement rather than inconveniences or nuisances.	5: Following the course, the expectation is that attendees will demonstrate competent complaints handling and communication skills necessary for providing superior customer service in their respective dental practices.

Regulatory Standards

GDC	CQC
✅ A – Effective Communication ✅ B – Effective Management ✅ C – Maintenance in Field of Practice ✅ D – Maintenance in Patient Confidence	✅ Caring ✅ Effective ✅ Leadership ✅ Responsive ✅ Safe

🕐 90 minutes of Enhanced Dental CPD

Course Description

This course covers understanding and categorizing complaints, legal aspects of complaints under the Dentists Act 1984, complaints handling procedures, effective communication skills, proactive patient management, and learning from complaints to sustain improvement. It includes case studies, scenario analysis, role-play, and group discussions to implement effective patient management.

Course Outline

Section 1

Section 1 of this course covers the importance of understanding and categorizing patient complaints, as well as the legal aspects of complaints in dentistry. It also provides an overview of the complaints handling procedure, including initial response, effective structure, and mediation. Communication skills and proactive patient management strategies are also discussed, along with the importance of reflecting and learning from complaints for sustained improvement.

Section 2

Section 2 of the course covers the complaints handling process, including recognizing and categorizing complaints, legal aspects, and the role of regulatory bodies. It also covers effective communication skills in dentistry, preventative approaches to patient management, and reflecting and learning from complaints, including diagnostic errors and change management.

Section 3

Section 3 of the course covers communication skills in complaint resolution, including effective communication in dentistry, managing emotions in difficult conversations, active listening and responding, and apologizing. It also covers proactive patient management, such as enhancing patient experience, clear communication, patient follow-ups, and regular feedback systems. Finally, it covers reflecting and learning from complaints, including diagnostic errors and clinical decision making, change management, policies and protocols, sustaining improvement, and major takeaways and best practices for complaint resolution.

Section 4

Section 4 of the course focuses on proactive patient management to prevent complaints. It covers topics such as enhancing patient experience, clear communication, patient follow-ups, and the value of patient surveys. The section also includes a group discussion on effective strategies for proactive patient management.

Section 5

Section 5 of this course covers topics related to reflecting and learning from complaints. It includes discussions on diagnostic errors, change management, policies, protocols, staff training, and developments. The section aims to provide learners with an understanding of how to sustain improvement and implement best practices for complaint resolution.

Course Reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Excellent course on handling patient complaints in dental practice – provided valuable insights into effective communication strategies and proactive patient management.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Highly recommended course for all dental professionals – particularly appreciated the case studies and role-play activities, which made it easy to apply the concepts to real-life situations.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This course exceeded my expectations – its coverage of the legal aspects of complaints under the Dentists Act 1984 was particularly thorough, and the group discussions helped to reinforce key takeaways.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

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The Enhanced CPD Pro app can be used on any device with a browser. If you’re using a phone or tablet, you can add it to your homescreen for quick access.

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