What are Patient Surveys? Importance | Types | Examples

Introduction to Patient Surveys

Providing impeccable and optimal care is the ultimate goal for all healthcare practices across the world and while we all strive to do so, In today’s world, with a variety of healthcare providers to choose from, and constantly changing patient expectations the only way to drive patient loyalty is by ensuring an overall good patient experience and a great way to do that is by using patient surveys effectively.

But why are patient surveys important? How do they really benefit medical practices? and most importantly, how to effectively use and deploy patient surveys? Let’s find out! 

Why are Patient Surveys Important?

Patient surveys are important to capture patient feedback which is further analyzed to identify gaps in care, enhance quality improvement efforts, measure patient experience, and minimize negative patient outcomes. 

A survey conducted by the Healthcare Intelligence Network found that around 60% of medical practices found a sharp increase in their patient retention rates using insights generated through patient surveys. 

Patient surveys are an excellent tool to measure patient satisfaction as they give you a comprehensive view of the things that are working well for you and the areas in which you need to improve. 

Patient surveys can cover various areas of assessment that help practices measure patient engagement, patient satisfaction, Overall experience etc. all of which can help with improving various areas of your healthcare practice and build a loyal customer base that is highly likely to recommend your practice to a friend or colleague.

Patient Surveys: Areas of Assessment

Accessibility

This includes the ease of booking appointments, location accessibility, and wait times.  

Fact: 30% of patients have walked out of an appointment and 20% of patients have changed doctors due to long wait times.  

Communication

This includes the behavior of the staff and doctors with the patient. 

As per a study, patients who are satisfied with their provider’s communication skills are more likely to adhere to the suggested treatment plans. This leads to a 60-90% increase in retention rate.  

Quality of Care

This includes the attentiveness of the providers and staff and the overall resolution/treatment suggested. 

Fact: High-quality care translates to better patient outcomes, enhanced patient satisfaction, and higher revenue for the facility. 

Overall Impression

This includes professionalism on the part of the doctors/nurses, cleanliness of the facility, ease of appointment booking, hygiene, technology, and comfort. 

Fact: 68% of patients say that they would choose medical providers that offer easy booking of appointments online. 

Likelihood to Recommend

This includes feedback pertaining to whether the patient would recommend the facility to their friends and family. Only if they are satisfied with their experience and trust the healthcare facility, will they recommend it to others.  

The insights acquired from these surveys can help healthcare providers monitor patient health, offer panel management to patients suffering from chronic diseases, understand the results of a recommended treatment and also stay up to speed with constantly changing patient expectations. 

Key Areas of Focus in a Patient Survey

Doctor-Patient Relationship

To understand whether doctors treat their patients with respect and listen to their complaints properly. This includes the behaviour of the doctor, and their willingness to listen and explain things to satisfy the patient. 

Nurse-Patient Relationship

To understand the impression created on the patient. This includes questions regarding the efficiency of nurses in attending to the patients and resolving their issues. 

Doctor’s Availability

To understand how long the patient had to wait to get an appointment and visit the doctor they wished to consult. 

Overall Experience

This includes the wait time, experience with the doctor and nurses, query resolution, basic hygiene, etc. 

An Environment of the Facility

To gain feedback on the physical environment of the healthcare facility. It includes questions on the facility’s premises and housekeeping and whether the patient’s comfort was ensured.

Discharge Evaluation

To gain feedback on the discharge process at the medical facility. The questions can include the time taken for discharge, the help provided to smoothen the process, and the information provided to ensure an efficient transition.

Ready-to-use Patient Survey Templates

Now that we have a sound understanding of what patient surveys are and what they reflect, here are a few ready-to-use patient survey templates that can help your practice identify areas for improvement —

#1: Care-Related Patient Survey  

A care-related survey is used to gather feedback on the care received by patients while availing treatment. Here are the top questions that make up a care-related patient survey: 

• Did your healthcare provider patiently listen to your concerns and answer your queries?
• Were you involved in the decision-making process pertaining to your care? 
• Did the provider mention the diagnosis and treatment options clearly? 
• Was your privacy respected during the time of your visit/stay? 
• Did the healthcare team provide you with timely and appropriate pain management? 
• Were you clearly informed about the potential side effects of the suggested treatment? 
• Did the medical staff take appropriate measures to prevent infection during treatment? 
• Were you given clear instructions for aftercare and follow-up appointments? 
• How satisfied are you with the visit? 
• Would you recommend the facility to your family/friends? 
• Any remark you would like to give?

#2: Inpatient Survey 

This type of patient survey is used to collect feedback from patients who have been admitted to a healthcare facility as inpatients. This survey is designed to understand the experience of the patients during their stay. Here are the top questions that make up this survey: 

• How would you rate the patient wards? 
• How would you rate the waiting time at the facility? 
• Did the nursing staff respond quickly to your requests for medication, assistance with toileting, and other needs?
• Did you receive timely assistance when you pressed the call button for help?
• Did you receive timely and appropriate pain management during your stay?
• Did you feel safe and secure during your inpatient stay?
• How would you rate the quality of the meals and snacks provided during your stay?
• Were your needs and preferences regarding your care taken into consideration during your stay?
• How would you rate the frequency of visits made by the doctor? 
• How would you rate the frequency of visits made by the nurse? 
• Were you given clear instructions for your aftercare and follow-up appointments? 
• How would you rate your overall experience at the facility? 
• How likely are you to recommend this facility to family and friends? 
• Any other feedback that you would like to give? 

#3: Outpatient Survey 

An outpatient survey is conducted for patients who are availing treatment from a healthcare facility but do not require an overnight stay at the same. This patient survey is used to collect feedback from outpatients regarding their experience. Here are the top questions that this patient survey includes: 

• How would you rate the appointment booking process? 
• Was the doctor attentive while listening to your concerns and answering your queries? 
• Were you able to express your health concerns comfortably to the provider? 
• Was your privacy respected during your visit? 
• Were you informed about the potential side effects of the proposed treatment?
• Did the facility staff make you feel safe and comfortable?
• Were you involved in the decision-making process regarding your care?  
• How would you rate the conduct of medical examinations and lab tests? 
• How would you rate the cleanliness and hygiene at the facility? 
• How would you rate the payment options and processing? 
• How would you rate the affordability of the services provided? 
• How would you rate the overall satisfaction with the treatment provided? 
• Any other feedback that you would like to give?

#4: Healthcare Expense Patient Survey

A healthcare expense patient survey is designed for patients to gain information about the expenses incurred by patients during the course of treatment. These expenses could be related to insurance or out-of-the-pocket expenses, and are recorded to understand the patient’s experience pertaining to the affordability of care offered at a medical facility. This survey contains more open-ended questions than the other patient surveys. 

Here are some common questions that make up this survey: 

• Did you find the cost of healthcare services to be reasonable?
• Were you satisfied with the payment and billing process?
• Were you given an estimate of the cost of your healthcare treatment? 
• Were there any unexpected charges that you weren’t aware of?
• Did you receive any options to reduce your cost of care?
• Was the treatment worth the cost?
• Did you face any financial difficulty while paying for your healthcare services? 
• Are there any areas wherein you feel the cost would have been lesser?
• How likely are you to recommend the facility to your family and friends?
• Any areas of improvement to make healthcare services more affordable? 

#5: Facility Feedback Survey

A facility feedback survey is used to gain feedback from patients about the overall appearance, cleanliness, safety, and accessibility of a medical facility. Such a type of patient survey helps the facility owners understand the areas of improvement and make necessary upgrades. Here are the top questions that this survey contains: 

• How would you rate the physical location of the facility? 
• How would you rate the quality of meals served at the cafeteria/wards? 
• How would you rate the parking service? 
• How would you rate the infrastructure? 
• Was the staff courteous, professional, and friendly?
• Was the cost of treatment reasonable?
• How would you rate the technology and equipment used at the facility?  
• How would you rate the cleanliness and hygiene at the facility? 
• Was the waiting time reasonable? 
• Was the appointment booking process reasonable? 
• How would you rate the knowledge of the staff regarding insurance?  
• How would you rate the customer service?
• Did you feel your safety, privacy, and comfort were taken care of during your visit?
• How likely are you to recommend the facility to your friends and family? 
• How would you rate your overall experience at the facility? 
• Any other feedback that you would like to give? 

#6: Generic Patient Feedback Survey 

This type of patient survey is conducted to gather feedback on the overall experience of the patient pertaining to care received at the medical facility. Here are some common questions this survey consists of: 

• How would you rate the doctor’s attentiveness and care? 
• How would you rate the nurse’s attentiveness and courtesy? 
• How would you rate the customer service? 
• Did the provider involve you in the decision-making process regarding your treatment?
• Did the provider communicate the potential side effects of the treatment clearly? 
• Were your safety, comfort, and privacy is taken care of during your visit? 
• How likely are you to recommend the facility to your friends and family? 
• Were you given clear instructions regarding aftercare and follow-up appointments? 
• How likely are you to recommend the facility to your family and friends? 
• Any areas of improvement that you would like to highlight?
• Any other feedback that you would like to give? 

Best practices While Creating Patient Surveys

As a healthcare practitioner, you must create patient surveys that help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your practice so that you can build up on the former and improve the latter. Here are some best practices that will help you create patient surveys–

Keep the Survey Short 

Keep your survey crisp and brief no one likes to fill out pages and pages of surveys with never-ending questions. If you wish to generate enough feedback to analyze your strong and weak points, make sure that the survey is to the point and contains questions that align with your goals. Whether the survey is online or offline, it needs to be as short as possible so that your patient doesn’t find it to be a mammoth task to fill it.  

Use Simple Language 

Complex language is a no-no when creating patient surveys. You need to keep the language as simple as possible so that all types of patients can easily understand those questions and respond to them. 

For instance, instead of asking “How would you rate professionalism demonstrated on the part of the healthcare provider and the front desk support staff?”, you can ask “How would you rate the attentiveness and care of the doctor and customer support staff?”.  

Ask Universal Answers 

Ask questions that do not require putting in too many words or any words at all. Design it in a manner that gives the patient the ability to check one of the boxes, give a rating, or reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’. For example: 

• Were all your queries answered by the doctor? (Yes/No)
• How would you rate the overall experience at the facility? 
• Are you satisfied with the service provided? (Satisfied/Somewhat satisfied/Not satisfied)

Avoid Insensitive Questions 

Never ask questions that tend to make the patients uncomfortable. Always make sure to stick to questions that are relevant to your objective of gathering feedback. If there are any personal questions that you might have for the patients, always make those optional, so that the patient doesn’t feel compelled to answer. 

Include an Open-Ended Question

Make sure to include an open-ended question for the customer to describe any aspect of their experience. Giving such an option will allow them to fully express their feelings and help you better understand what areas you need to improve on and what they liked about your facility and services. Something as simple as “Would you like to leave any remark?” will work. 

Allow Anonymity 

While gathering information to understand what people feel about your facility, the staff, and the services offered; using an anonymous survey works best. This also makes patients trust you and makes them comfortable giving honest feedback. It will give them the assurance that their responses will not be linked to their identity. This will further encourage them to leave feedback without being hesitant, and you’ll have complete and accurate information.

Comply with Legal Regulations 

As a healthcare professional, whatever survey you create must: 

• Have the written consent of the patient 
• Comply with GDPR and HIPAA guidelines 
• Be inclusive of all patient groups irrespective of their identity 

Implement Automation  

How would you send out surveys to your patients who have availed of a treatment? Do not rely solely on paper forms that you have on your front desk. Automate your feedback collection process and send survey links to your patients via text and email. Make sure to send those feedback surveys as soon as your patients leave the facility. Since they’ve only recently availed treatment, they will have the experience fresh in their minds and will be able to answer objectively and promptly. 

Fact check: A study published in the Journal of Medical Practice Management revealed that medical practices that sent out patient surveys recorded a 92% retention rate. On the other hand, practices that did not use surveys recorded a retention rate of 84%. 

Record Data in One Central Location

Whatever survey you create and send out, make sure to capture data centrally, to be able to act upon it. For instance, if you’re sending out google forms, have the entire data saved in a single excel sheet so that all the data is in one location. From that data, you will be able to identify areas of improvement and analyze trends. With this data, you will also be able to boost patient recall.

How Does Emitrr Help with Patient Surveys?

Emitrr offers automation capabilities that help you streamline the process of sharing surveys with your patients via text and email, and also offers medical forms that you can download, customize, share, and update.

As soon as a patient leaves the healthcare facility post availing treatment, an automated message will be sent out to the patient asking for their feedback.  With such prompts, you will be able to gather actionable data and make improvements in patient experience and improve patient satisfaction, and also reduce patient no-shows and cancellations.

Wondering how to create patient surveys using Emitrr? Watch this video! 

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Asking the right questions, allowing for anonymity, keeping questions simple to understand and easy to answer, and above all, gaining the unfiltered feedback of the patient are the factors that will make your patient survey worth it. With a crisp survey, you can attain all the information that you need, and analyze it to meet your patient satisfaction goals. Book a demo with Emitrr and materialize patient experience.