A big thank you to all our patients who recently completed our patient survey. We would just like to share the results regarding areas that you felt could be improved and how we are trying to address these:
Administration:
It can be difficult for some patients to get an appointment with the doctor of their choice in particular with Dr Denz – we have changed Dr Denz's roster to provide 2 hours of acute care appointments every day (appointments that can only be booked on the day).We will monitor this and will increase this if needed.
Where can patients get medical care when the Practice is closed – we already have notices up in reception, voicemail instructions on the phone after hours, and information on the website regarding this. We are also open all weekends and public holidays except Xmas Day. We will arrange a more prominent notice on our website.
Improve privacy in the reception/waiting room – we have put up signs “please respect other people’s privacy at reception”.
Doctors:
Reduce waiting times (mainly related to Dr Denz and Dr Spry) – we have increased the time slot for new patients for Dr Spry to 30 minutes and for Dr Denz we will set up a default Long appointment for complex patients.
More information about side effects of treatments – we will run some more doctor education sessions to emphasize the importance of this.
More information on how to stay healthy – again we will run some doctor education sessions to focus on the importance of this and will also put more patient information regarding this on our website.
Reception:
Better manage patient expectations about waiting times – we currently send SMS messages if a doctor running late, and advise patients to go and get a coffee when they arrive if the doctor is far behind, we also advise how many patients are ahead of them.We will run more staff education sessions to remind them to be aware and stay on top of this.
And picking out one of the positive themes - "Reception is doing a great job! ...." We agree!! They won our “Team of the Year” for 2017 and we sent them all to Rottnest for the day, while the managers covered the reception shifts.