Practice Managers’ Toolkit: Leading and Learning from Complaints Handling Process

About This Course

Learn how to effectively handle complaints in dental practices with this course. Covering legal and ethical aspects, communication techniques, leadership, and more. Includes case studies and tools for improvement.

Why Take This Course?

Dental professionals in the UK often face challenges related to managing patient complaints, which can be a stressful and time-consuming process. Complaints can arise from a variety of issues, such as poor communication, treatment outcomes, or staff behavior. The “Complaints Handling in Dental Practices” course is designed to help dental professionals understand the importance of complaints handling and equip them with the skills and tools necessary to manage complaints effectively. By learning about legal and ethical aspects of complaints handling, effective communication techniques, and strategies for building a complaints-resilient practice, dental professionals can improve patient satisfaction and outcomes while also reducing the likelihood of future complaints.

The “Complaints Handling in Dental Practices” course can benefit dental practices by providing valuable training on handling complaints effectively and ethically. The course covers a range of topics including communication, leadership, and learning from complaints. It also includes practical tools such as root cause analysis and fishbone diagrams to assist with complaints management. Overall, completing this course can help dental practices build a complaints-resilient environment and improve their overall patient satisfaction.

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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 understand and apply effective strategies for handling complaints in dental practice, adopting a step-by-step approach from acknowledging to resolving a complaint.	1: Upon completion of the course, participants are expected to develop a more positive perception of patient complaints, viewing them as opportunities for learning and improvement rather than just criticisms.
2: Upon completion, learners will have the capacity to communicate effectively during the complaint handling process, utilizing skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, constructive response, and assertiveness.	2: As a result of this course, learners will likely foster a culture of open communication and continuous improvement in their dental practices, potentially raising the standard of patient care in the wider dental community.
3: Participants will demonstrate their ability to manage complex cases and challenging situations during complaints handling, employing strategies for de-escalation and preventing potential escalation of complaints into legal disputes.	3: The course should lead to an enhanced set of communication and emotional intelligence skills in attendees, allowing them to interact more effectively with patients under unfavorable situations and manage complaints more successfully.
4: By the final session, learners will have mastered the process of reflection, feedback, and implementing changes based on complaint analysis, fostering continuous improvement in their approach to managing complaints.	4: In the wider context, the course aims to contribute to the reduction in escalations of complaints into legal disputes in the field of dental practice, due to improved forethought, empathy, and management strategies implemented by course participants.
5: At the course’s conclusion, attendees will have developed the competency to design and implement robust action plans for future complaints, contributing to the improvement of overall patient satisfaction and trust.	5: Following the course, the expectation is that attendees will organize and adopt systematic complaint handling procedures in their practices, mitigating patient dissatisfaction and fostering a strong patient-provider relationship.

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

The course, titled “Complaints Handling in Dental Practices,” covers topics such as the importance of complaints handling, legal and ethical aspects of complaints handling, effective communication in complaints handling, leadership in complaints management, learning and improving from complaints, and building a complaints-resilient dental practice. The course includes case studies, exercises, and tools such as root cause analysis and fishbone diagrams to support effective complaints handling.

Course Outline

Section 1

This course covers various aspects of complaints handling in dental practices, including understanding complaints and their types, legal and ethical aspects, effective communication skills, leadership in complaints management, continuous improvement, and building a complaints-resilient practice. Case studies, exercises, and tools for analysis are used throughout the course to help professionals learn and improve from real-life complaints scenarios.

Section 2

Section 2 of the course covers the effective communication skills needed when handling complaints in dental practices. It discusses the importance of communication in addressing complaints, improving patient-professional communication, and communicating empathy and apologies. The section also includes an exercise in role-playing patient-professional communication scenarios.

Section 3

Section 3 of this course focuses on leadership in complaints management, including the role of leadership in complaints management, handling changes following a complaint, building a complaints handling protocol, promoting a positive culture towards complaints, and the impact of leadership on complaint resolution. Additionally, the course covers the role of continuous improvement in complaints handling, tools for analysis such as root cause analysis and fishbone diagrams, implementing changes based on complaints, monitoring and evaluating changes, and building a complaints-resilient dental practice through policies and processes, workforce training and development, and regular audits and updates.

Section 4

Section 4 of the course content focuses on learning and improving from complaints. It covers the role of continuous improvement in complaints handling, tools for analysis such as root cause analysis and fishbone diagrams, implementing changes based on complaints, and monitoring and evaluating changes through feedback mechanisms. It also includes an exercise on drawing lessons from real-life complaints scenarios. The goal is to help dental practices use complaints as opportunities for improvement and create a culture of resilience towards complaints.

Section 5

The course content of section 5 covers building a complaints-resilient dental practice. This includes understanding the meaning of a complaints-resilient practice, building resilience through policies and processes, workforce training and development, and maintaining a complaints-resilient practice through regular audits and updates. The section also provides a summary of leading and learning from the complaints handling process.

Course Reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This course was a game-changer for my practice. It provided step-by-step guidance on how to handle complaints in a way that is professional, ethical, and effective. The tools and exercises provided were easy to use and helped me identify the root cause of complaints quickly.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The course was well-structured and informative. The case studies provided were particularly helpful in understanding the complex nature of complaints handling. I also appreciated the emphasis on learning and improving from complaints, which has helped me to improve my practice.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I found this course to be an excellent resource for dental professionals. The inclusion of legal and ethical aspects of complaints handling was particularly valuable, as it helped me to understand the legal framework surrounding complaints. The tools provided, such as the fishbone diagrams, were also very helpful in identifying the root cause of complaints.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

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