Why Have a Complaints Policy and Procedure?
Helvetic Clinics considers complaints as:
- A way to learn from our mistakes
- Improve for the future
- Correct the problem for the person who made the complaint
Handling complaints well:
- Shows how commited we are to our patients
- Shows how commited we are to providing the best possible service
- Helps us find how and why things went wrong
- Helps us fix them
- Helps us to avoid making the same mistakes twice
This is the reason why:
- We created this complaints procedure clear and easy to use
- We publicise the existence of our complaints procedure so that you know how to contact us when things go wrong
- We make sure everyone at Helvetic Clinics knows how to handle complaints
- We make sure all complaints are treated fairly and quickly
- We make sure to resolve the problems that may have occurred
A complaint can be received verbally, by phone, by email or in writing.
Confidentiality
All complaint information will be handled sensitively.
Responsibility
Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with the management committee.
Review
This policy is reviewed regularly and updated as required. Adopted on
January 1st, 2014
Last reviewed November 24th, 2015
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE OF HELVETIC CLINICS
Written complaints may be sent in a written form to:
- Helvetic Clinics
Revay u. 12
HU-1065 Budapest
Hungary - or by e-mail at [email protected]
- or by fax at +41 22 731 13 49
Verbal complaints may be made by phone to the following numbers:
Switzerland (German) +41 43 508 27 36
Switzerland (French) +41 22 518 18 97
France +33 9 75 18 57 83
Belgium +32 2 588 19 78
Denmark +45 89 88 28 95
Ireland +353 766 80 56 44
Norway +47 8 150 31 32
United Kingdom +44 2031 29 18 29
Germany +49 322 21 09 35 28
Guarantee cases
Sometimes, complaints fall into guarantee cases. In order to claim for the guarantee, the patients must respect the terms and conditions that they have signed.
- Failure to respect those rules invalidates the guarantee
- The decision to carry out remedial treatments is made by the management team (chief dentists and Switzerland) who will decide, together, to trigger the guarantee, after seeing the patient.
Monitoring and Learning from Complaints
Complaints are reviewed annually to identify any trends which may indicate a need to take further action.
Receiving Complaints
When Helvetic Clinics receive a complaint, the person who receives it:
• Writes down the details and nature of the complaint
• Writes down the contact details
• Explains to the patient how the procedure will take place
• When needed, the person would ask the patient to write an email describing the exact problem or what he is feeling, in his own words.
Resolving Complaints
In many cases, a complaint is easily resolved by one of our after care representatives in a timely manner. He or she will pass on the information to the person(s) in charge of the after care service.
We distinguish three levels of complaints according to their treatment.
In all three cases, upon receiving the complaint, the person(s) in charge of the after care service records it in the complaints log.
Level 1 concerns those that can be resolved immediately by the person receiving the complaint and the complaint is not related to dental treatment. Example: significant delay of the appointment, no driver at the airport, etc.
In this case, it is simply required to record the complaint in the complaints log.
Level 2 concerns the complaints that can be resolved immediately by the person receiving the complaint and that are related to dental treatment. Example: healing cap lost, problem with temporary denture or crowns, etc.
In this case, after recording the complaint in the complaints log, an email has to be sent to the dentist to inform him.
Level 3 refers to more complex cases. Whether the complaint has been resolved or not, the complete information is passed simultaneously to the appropriate doctor(s) who treated the patients as well as the chief dentists and the managers immediately upon receipt.
Complaints should be acknowledged by the managers handling the complaint within 24 hours. The acknowledgement should say who is dealing with the complaint and when the person complaining can expect a reply.
Ideally complainants should receive a definitive reply within 48 hours. If this is not possible because for example, an investigation has not been fully completed, a progress report should be sent to the complainant with an indication of when a full reply will be given.
Whether the complaint is justified or not, the reply to the complainant describes the action taken to investigate the complaint, the conclusions from the investigation, and any action taken as a result of the complaint.
