3 of the Most Common Patient Complaints and Ways to Reduce Them

Patient satisfaction isn’t an easy task to handle within a hospital; people are already in places they don’t want to be, and the smallest gesture in improving a stay can travel miles for a patient’s well-being. It’s up to staff to perform those small gestures and take advantage of them for the betterment of people. Not taking advantage of those small details could result in patient complaints. Patients file complaints on a consistent basis, and rightfully so; sometimes small mistakes, unrefined processes, and archaic procedures just result in a bad experience. There are several reasons why a complaint might arise, and all of them should serve as examples on how to improve—lest the hospital suffers bad return rates, scathing online reviews—you get the idea. Here are some common patient complaints and what can be done to reduce their frequency greatly.

Let’s Communicate, Not Procrastinate!

Insufficient communication is a constant for complaints. It might be the case that a nurse forgot to notify next of kin if a patient’s medical conditions change, or maybe there isn’t enough social activity to ease someone’s mental health while they’re bedridden. Regardless, communication problems often rank within the top five for any hospital, but there are some ways to improve communication between patient and practitioner, or even among medical staff.

Medical staff can achieve higher patient satisfaction ratings by using a medical cart computer or a mounted medical computer in the patient’s room to demonstrate how a patient’s illness is affecting them. Plus, it’s likely the case throughout the hustle and bustle of daily hospital operations that communication isn’t the best between nurses and doctors. Medical tablets keep communication at a constant rate so there’s no information falling through the cracks. Nurses can receive updates with patient orders directly to a tablet while doing rounds, or can video conference with an attending physician in a remote location. All parties can stay up to date, minute by minute, so the focus can remain on getting the patient the care they need and send them away, healthier than before.

In addition to the importance of communicating test results and other pertinent medical information with patients, it is equally important for the mental well being of a patient to be able to communicate with loved ones. A medical computer mounted on a patient table can have the dual purpose of allowing a patient to video conference with family members, check social media accounts, and mitigate any feelings of isolation while admitted.

Patients Need Better Sleep

Another common complaint is a difficulty in getting a good night’s sleep. Hospitals operate on a 24/7 cycle, so ambient noise won’t be avoidable. However, there are ways to reduce noise in a patient’s room. A lot of hospitals are mounting computers in each patient room, but this presents a lot of challenges to a patient. With these devices running 24/7 components heat up and need to be cooled. The last thing a tired patient needs is for a computer fan to go off next to their bed in the middle of the night. A fanless medical computer is best for in-room devices. Why?

Computers with fans can often reach noisy levels! A computer with a fanless design provides cleaner, quieter environment to help a patient get a better night’s sleep. Fanless computers are also more reliable since they don’t suck in dust and lack the moving parts that could easily fail.

Hurry Up and Wait to Feel Better

We all know the story—calling up to make an appointment, leaving a message, waiting for a phone call, answering a call and waiting on hold for the nurse for scheduling, getting transferred to another physician—hurry up and wait is a constant struggle for outpatients. We’ve all done it ourselves, so why would you want your patients to endure that? Would you prefer your patients to wait longer to feel better? We wouldn’t either, but waiting is a common complaint that a strong percentage of patients mark down on complaint sheets.

With the advent of telehealth, patients can access their hospital scheduling department through a web portal and send off their symptoms within a few minutes. Doctors are notified via a medical tablet that a new request for appointment is in, and then can receive symptoms, previous medical conditions, current medications, and likely diagnoses—all within a fraction of time from the “old ways.” The patient can get an earlier appointment scheduled, get into the office, see the doctor, review diagnosis and facts, and then have their prescription signed for at the point of care. And in some cases, a diagnosis or course of treatment can be prescribed without the patient ever even needing to go to the office. You’ve just saved your operations hours and reduced the wait time for your patient significantly, all because every process was handled electronically through a medical tablet. That’s technology working for you and your patients.

When addressing problems with better technology, suddenly we turn a hospital experience from a terrible necessity into something positive. The last place anyone desires to be is on a stretcher or hospital bed, but through the use of medical tablets and other devices, we might be able to put a spark in day-to-day struggles that people experience, whether in-patient or out. Get people feeling better again, quicker, and you’ll see fewer complaints, possibly more sparkling reviews, a higher attendance rate, and perhaps even better career satisfaction among the hospital staff. It’s said smiles are infectious, and we tend to agree. Contact us to learn more.