How to get the best patient feedback

How to get the best patient feedback

A key part of being an effective physician – indeed, in being effective in any job – is a commitment to ongoing professional improvement.

But knowing where you’re already excelling and where you may need improvement can be challenging unless you consciously seek out this information from patients.

That’s why sending patient surveys is so essential. Post-visit surveys can be the key to unlocking how your patients truly see your practice – and what they think of your style and strengths as a healthcare provider.

Why patient response surveys matter

When done well, patient response surveys can provide an essential source of feedback on what’s working – and what’s not – in your office’s organization and operations. They can also provide some telling insights into aspects of your bedside manner that are hitting the right mark with patients, as well as those that could use improvement.

Create a patient survey that elicits helpful feedback 

Patients are more likely to complete an experience survey if it is written clearly, with questions that are easy to understand and a scoring system – such as 1 for very poor and 5 for excellent – that is easy to navigate.

Make each question specific and direct

Arrange your survey so that each question asks only about one specific aspect of the patient experience. If you pose wide-ranging, open-ended questions such as “Rate your experience at your last office visit,” you’ll likely get feedback that is so generalized it’s hard to interpret or act upon.

Rather, to receive direct and actionable feedback, pose questions about specific aspects of the visit, such as:

• How easy was it to set up your appointment?
• How helpful was the registration staff when you arrived for your appointment?
• How would you rank your wait time to see the physician?
• To what degree do you feel the physician listened to your health symptoms or concerns?
• How satisfied were you with your prescribed treatment plan (if applicable)?

Allow room for open-ended responses

In addition to direct, specific questions that provide measurable scores on a 1-5 or 1-10 point scale, also be sure to include survey sections that invite patients to share open-ended responses.

However, avoid asking overly broad questions for open-ended responses, such as “What other thoughts do you wish to share about your visit?” Questions like these are so vague they may tempt patients to skip them entirely.

Instead, offer lead-in prompts that get patients thinking about their visit in specific ways. For example, you might ask:

• Based upon your experience at this visit, would you recommend Dr. [Name Here] to a friend or family member? Why or why not?
• Did you leave this visit with unanswered questions? What kept you from getting these answers during the visit?
• Please name two specific ways we could have improved your visit.

By offering prompts, you’ll more likely elicit feedback from patients that is actionable and specific rather than vague and overly generic. And, over time, if there are areas of your office visits that need improvement – for example, long wait times – you’ll likely begin to see these themes echoed across both patients’ open response and their multiple-choice sections.

Moreover, if you write the questions well, the open-response sections can yield important insights into why certain scores in the ranked-scale sections might be lower.

For example, if patients write that they left with remaining questions because they felt the physician rushed their visit, this could explain a poor score for overall patient satisfaction or “listening to patient concerns” sections earlier in the survey.

Show evidence of improvement

If possible, illustrate concrete examples of continuous improvement based on past survey responses. Consider highlighting specific instances of “improvement in action” in your office through patient-facing signage, email updates or social media announcements.

By pointing out how past patient feedback is informing change for the better in your practice, your patients will see that you actually read and use their survey responses proactively.

After seeing these changes in action, patients will more likely feel that responding to your feedback survey is worth their effort. And, instead of tossing the survey aside, they’ll be more apt to answer it, knowing the effort they put in will improve their own future visits and those of other patients.

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