POSTED ON: Sep 28, 2026
The same complaint keeps appearing in your reviews. Staff apologize, the issue gets discussed, someone promises to address it, and then a few weeks later, another patient says essentially the same thing.
That pattern matters because patients' online complaints often tie to operational parts of the visit rather than the clinical interaction itself. In RepuGen's analysis of more than 3.2 million online reviews across 10 major U.S. specialties from January 2020 to March 2025, doctors received an average rating of 4.4 out of 5, while wait times scored 2.9 and billing transparency scored 2.8.
About 89% of patients check online reviews when researching a new healthcare provider, according to RepuGen's 2026 Healthcare Behavioral Study. So recurring complaints rarely stay private.
To understand how practices can address them, RepuGen asked healthcare leaders what they do when the same complaints keep coming back.
Methodology: RepuGen posed 5 questions to practice administrators, revenue cycle leaders, operations executives, and clinicians. We received 148 responses from 64 contributors and selected 15 experts based on firsthand healthcare experience, specificity, and originality. Each expert was used once. This builds on our previous expert study.
Across 15 healthcare leaders, the same pattern appeared repeatedly: recurring patient complaints often start 1 step before they become visible. Wait complaints can begin with unrealistic schedule templates or unexplained delays. Billing complaints can start when costs are revealed after care. Scheduling complaints can reflect rigid capacity. Communication complaints can come from promises without a named owner or date. Complaints about "rude staff" can begin with unclear policies or information gaps that land on the front desk. The principle is simple: fix the step, not the person.
Common patient complaints include long wait times, difficulty getting appointments, rude or dismissive staff, poor communication, and unexpected bills. Across healthcare settings, many complaints focus on how care is organized and delivered rather than the clinical care itself.
A 2025 peer-reviewed study of 1,816 primary care complaints found that 59.4% were classified as management-related, with institutional processes accounting for 45.7%. An AI-assisted thematic analysis identified long wait times, staff attitudes, and appointment booking difficulties as the 3 most common themes. The Journal of Medical Internet Research study
| Complaint | What the Evidence Shows |
|---|---|
| Long wait times | The largest theme in the JMIR analysis, accounting for 21.6% of complaints. The ONS analysis of GP services in England also identified long appointment waits as one of the most common reasons for negative experiences. |
| Rude or dismissive staff | Staff attitudes and behavior accounted for 15.8% of complaints in the JMIR analysis. |
| Appointment access | Appointment booking difficulties accounted for 10.5% of complaints in the JMIR analysis. ONS similarly identified difficulty booking appointments as a leading reason for negative GP experiences. |
| Poor communication | Communication was the largest individual complaint subject in NHS hospital and community services, accounting for 17.6% of new complaints in 2024 to 2025. NHS England's written complaints data |
| Unexpected bills | Billing transparency received the lowest overall rating in RepuGen's review analysis at 2.8 out of 5. Separately, 30% of insured U.S. adults surveyed by KFF said it was difficult to understand what they would owe out of pocket. |
These 5 complaint categories are exactly what we asked healthcare leaders to solve.
Our experts trace many wait-time complaints to 2 sources: schedule templates that treat every visit as the same length and delays nobody explains. Their advice is to fix the template and the communication around delays before assuming that adding staff is the answer.
RepuGen's review analysis rated wait times at 2.9 out of 5, with OB GYN at 2.6 and family medicine at 2.8.
"...wait times usually come down to patient flow, not just the doctor's schedule... A quick post-op visit shouldn't be scheduled the same way as a new glaucoma or retina patient who needs several tests."
Start by mapping delays by visit type rather than simply looking at the provider's schedule.
"Most practices measure the wrong clock. They are looking at how long it takes to get in the room to start, but the patient is actually measuring how long it takes... until someone who can actually help them says hello. Those are two different numbers and only one of them shows up in reviews."
"Patients do not complain about long waits. They complain about unexplained waits... A twenty-minute delay with a stated reason and a revised time generates fewer complaints than a ten-minute delay in silence."
Start here: Train the front desk to give every waiting patient a clinician name, an estimated wait time, and a revised time.
Our contributors agree that billing complaints are rarely about the price alone. They are often about when the patient learns what the price will be. Their consistent advice is to provide a written estimate before care, explain what could change it, and communicate again when circumstances change.
Billing transparency scored 2.8 out of 5 in RepuGen's review analysis, making it the lowest-rated category. Dermatology and primary care both scored 2.5. The problem extends beyond healthcare billing systems. In KFF's 2023 survey of 3,605 insured U.S. adults, 30% said it was difficult to understand what they would owe out of pocket for care.
"Most billing complaints are a timing problem before they are a pricing problem... A benefit check tells you the patient is covered. It does not tell you what the plan will actually pay, and 'covered' was never a number. The fix is to move the dollar figure to the front."
"The biggest complaint reducer is writing down the 'if this happens, then this costs' scenarios. If pathology, extra laser passes, additional filler syringes, revision work, or missed appointments can create charges, they should be listed in plain English before treatment."
"...what actually reduced our complaints was making estimate accuracy a number I report the same way I report collections. Every closed case has its final bill compared to what we told the patient up front... That single habit exposes bad assumptions in your own fee schedule fast."
For uninsured and self-pay patients, the No Surprises Act generally requires providers to give a good faith estimate for scheduled care. Patients may be able to dispute a bill that is at least $400 above the estimate.
Start here: Compare last month's final bills against the estimates you gave, and fix the biggest gap.
Our experts describe access complaints as a capacity allocation problem as much as a capacity shortage. Their recommendations include protecting a small number of same-day slots, simplifying appointment types, and letting patients reach the practice outside the traditional 9-to-5 window.
AMN Healthcare's 2025 survey of 1,391 physician offices across 15 major metropolitan areas found an average new patient appointment wait of 31 days, up 19% from 2022.
"The strategy that improved access the most for us was deliberately holding back a small block of same-day and next-day slots specifically for urgent concerns... protecting even two or three slots a day for that purpose eliminates most of those complaints without touching overall capacity."
"A lot of clinics have what seems like endless lists of appointment types, each with its own time duration... they should not have more than 3 to 4 different appointment types. When staff can easily identify which appointment type to book for patients, patients are helped sooner, rather than later."
"Think about what you say your business hours are and how it defines who you say you serve. My experience at Penn Medicine showed me that people with jobs, kids, and no car cannot call the clinic from 9 to 5. It is a policy not an accident of staffing that a phone line goes dead at 7 pm."
Start here: Hold back 2 or 3 same-day slots for 1 month and track how many access complaints you still receive.
Our contributors point to 2 gaps behind many communication complaints. The first is that patients did not fully understand the information before leaving. The second is follow-up without a named owner or date. Their solution is to confirm understanding in the room and attach a specific person and date to every next step.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's teach-back guidance describes teach-back as a way to ask patients to explain information in their own words, helping clinicians confirm whether they understood the instructions.
"Whoever picks up the phone or wraps a session repeats back what the person asked and what happens next, in plain language. 'You want to know if your insurance covers this, and I'm going to check and call you back by Thursday.'... Clarity isn't how much you tell someone. It's how much they can actually carry out the door."
"...we stopped letting patients leave consultations holding vague next steps. Every consult ends with a documented summary of what was discussed, what the patient's concerns, and who on our team owns their follow-up. Named accountability, not a general office number."
With 45 years in nursing, including time as a nurse manager, Lokare points to teach-back as a practical way to identify where communication breaks down:
"...Teach-back is the best way to test for understanding instead of asking 'Do you have any questions?'... We rewrote the heart failure handout after three patients within a one week period called and asked what 'daily weights' meant. Those calls stopped almost overnight."
Start here: List the 3 questions your phones get most often. Each one usually points to a missing handout or a missing sentence at checkout.
Our experts found that many complaints about "rude staff" begin before the interaction patients describe. A wrong price quoted on the phone, an undocumented policy, or a team member without authority to resolve a problem can all place frontline staff in a difficult position.
RepuGen's analysis rated staff overall at 4.6 out of 5, while front desk scored 3.6 and management scored 3.2. That gap aligns with what our contributors describe, although the review data does not establish causation.
"Rudeness will almost always have to do with the last person your patient spoke to, which in turn is usually not the cause of the rudeness... Read your complaints from the back. Look at what happened before the name was mentioned."
"The biggest thing I changed... was to stop letting frontline staff absorb decisions they didn't make... Most complaints labeled 'rude' are actually about a delivery problem wrapped up in a policy problem."
"...someone who doesn't have the authority to approve anything spends a shift saying 'no'... We documented what the frontline workers could approve without checking upward. It's a short list, and complaints have dropped."
Start here: Before coaching anyone, write down what your front desk can approve on its own.
Every expert above made the same move: they stopped treating complaints as isolated incidents and started reading them as data.
| Complaint | Where Our Experts Say It Starts | First Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Wait times | Visit length and unexplained delays | Adjust templates and communicate revised times |
| Billing | Costs explained too late | Move estimates and possible additional charges earlier |
| Access | Capacity allocation and appointment complexity | Protect same-day capacity and simplify booking |
| Communication | Unclear information and ownership | Confirm understanding and assign follow-up |
| Staff complaints | Policies and authority gaps | Fix upstream information and decision-making |
3 habits can make this process more useful. First, tag every complaint to the step where it started, not simply the department that received it. Second, read the patient's actual words rather than relying on a summary. Third, review complaints in monthly batches, so recurring patterns are easier to see.
RepuGen's CommentWiz sentiment analysis can group themes such as wait times and billing across large volumes of reviews. Post-visit surveys can help identify which part of the process broke, while a service recovery workflow can help staff reach unhappy patients earlier.
Why do the same patient complaints keep coming back?
The fix often targets the person who received the complaint rather than the step where it started. Our contributors point to upstream causes such as unrealistic schedule templates, late cost estimates, and unclear follow-up ownership. Fixing that step can address the pattern, not just the individual incident.
How do you find the root cause of a recurring patient complaint?
Our contributors recommend logging complaints for several weeks with the time, the step in the visit, and the patient's exact words. Tagging each complaint to where it started can reveal recurring handoffs or workflow gaps that are easier to fix than isolated incidents.
Are practices required to give patients a cost estimate?
For uninsured and self-pay patients, providers generally must give a good-faith estimate when required under the No Surprises Act. Patients may be able to dispute a bill that is at least $400 above the estimate.
How often should a practice review complaint patterns?
Our experts suggest weekly reviews for quick operational fixes and monthly reviews for broader trends. A single complaint may be isolated, but several complaints about the same step can point to a workflow problem that deserves closer attention.
The practices that stop hearing the same complaint are not necessarily the ones with the best apologies. They trace each complaint back 1 step and fix the process where it started.
If recurring complaints are showing up in your reviews, see how RepuGen helps practices identify patterns, understand what patients are saying, and build more responsive workflows.
Banner Image Source: Google Flow
Recent Posts
0 Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
