Closely following the requirement for your records to be legible is that the language is understandable. You may find it challenging to consider the abbreviations you use and how well they are understood. You must always be careful what you write in your patient records – I’d like to think that goes without saying. Personal comments about patients, even abbreviated, must be written in a manner that would not cause offence. What abbreviations are you using? Can they be understood? Is your language consistent within your notes? Your notes may Continue Reading »
Clinical record keeping is evidence of good professional practice and the delivery of quality healthcare. Every patient that visits your clinic will have a patient record. Have you ever thought about the importance of your patient records? You might just answer – because we have to keep records as one of the standards of being called an osteopath. For all registered health professionals there is a legal requirement to keep patient records but beyond this, what is the reason for making sure your patient records are high quality: There are Continue Reading »
Over the last 3 months I have considered in-depth consent, handling complaints and communication on the blog, lives and webinars. Repeatedly as I have looked at these subjects it has been re-emphasised to me that communication is a key to success in practice. In fact, this thought was being echoed in a live this week by Greg Todd a coach for Physical Therapists. The best osteopaths are going to be the ones who are the best communicators. What do I mean by best? Those whose patients are most satisfied with Continue Reading »
The previous blog in this series on communication considered non-verbal communication – the message that your practice conveys through it’s leaflets, website and practice environment. Today we are going to think about listening. Last week I pointed out that the first sentence in the Osteopathic Practice Standards guidance is ‘Poor communication is at the root of most patient complaints’. The first sentence of the standards is ‘You must listen to your patients and respect their, individuality, concerns and preferences.’ Listening is fundamental to good communication and good patient care. The Continue Reading »
Communication is not just about the words that come out of your mouth it’s about the whole patient journey from their first contact with your patient to your last. We have previously considered consent and complaints and I have stated several times how communication is key to good consent and complaints processes. The OPS begins with communication as this forms the basis for demonstrating good practice standards. You communicate your standards through every aspect of your practice – the information on your website, your branding, your advertisements, social media, your Continue Reading »
Last week we looked at lessons you can learn from fitness to practice proceedings. This week we are going to think about learning from feedback received in clinic. It’s really important to use positive and negative feedback for your personal development. If you simply ignore feedback and try to hide away from it you will find that it can have a negative impact on your professional development. Duty of Candour In this series on complaints it is appropriate to just remind you of the Duty of Candour – D3 of Continue Reading »
There is a lot that we can learn from complaints and concerns that go to the GOsC. We’re going to look at some of the lessons we can learn today and next week we’ll look at professional development from issues arising within clinic. The GOsC 2017-18 fitness to practice report has recently been published which gives details of how investigative processes work and cases from the last year. I’m using this report as the basis for this article. How are complaints investigated There are three committees that handle complaints at Continue Reading »
Have you heard the saying: From a little spark a great fire can be kindled. I’m going to use sparks as a metaphor for feedback. You can recognise those sparks of feedback and deal with them in different ways. You don’t know where that spark might lead but you can direct it’s course by taking appropriate action. We’re going to look at different types of sparks, recognising the sparks – both positive and negative and then handling sparks and conclude with a few warnings. Where is your spark leading? Often Continue Reading »
This month we are going to be covering the subject of handling complaints. In my opinion handling complaints is one of the key components of good practice alongside good consent procedures and good communication. A complaints policy is compulsory We will consider your complaints procedure, handling complaints, learning from complaints and using feedback for professional development. We will also consider the Duty of Candour. These subjects relate to standards D3 and D4 in Theme D Professionalism. Under standard D4 it is compulsory for osteopaths to have a complaints policy in Continue Reading »
Here is a free one page summary of consent. You are very welcome to download it and use it to assess your clinical consent. It is a summary of the Theme A requirements of the Osteopathic Practice Standards for clinical consent. The link will download the pdf. Do leave us feedback if you found it helpful or you have suggestions for improvements.
