When Good Surgery Isn’t Enough: Managing the Unhappy Patient Saturday, October 17 Sat, Oct 17 5:00-6:00 p.m. CDT

Unhappy patients are an inevitable part of plastic surgery practice, even when technical outcomes are excellent. This session focuses on recognizing, preventing, and effectively managing patient dissatisfaction before it escalates into conflict, complaints, or litigation. Attendees will learn practical communication strategies, expectation-setting techniques, and service recovery tools to navigate emotionally charged encounters, protect the physician-patient relationship, and maintain professional resilience.

Upon completion of this learning activity, participants should be able to:

1. Identify early behavioral "red flags" and psychological markers that predispose certain patients to postoperative dissatisfaction.

2. Create a structured framework to de-escalate emotional confrontations in the clinic setting.

3. Apply evidence-based strategies for service recovery that balance clinical honesty with professional boundary-setting.

4. Execute a documentation strategy that accurately reflects patient concerns and surgeon responses to mitigate medicolegal risk and board complaints.

5. Determine when a patient-physician relationship is beyond repair and how to navigate the formal "firing" process ethically and legally.