5 Reasons to Employ a Patient Experience Survey

If you want to understand how your practice is operating, you likely take a look at financials and other concrete metrics. And while these numbers are no doubt important, they don’t provide you with a complete picture of your business’s performance.

Patient experience and satisfaction surveys are a great way to keep a pulse on how your practice is performing from a different perspective. The results of patient experience surveys can be used to improve the organization's reputation and to market the organization's strengths to potential patients. Learn more about the importance of these surveys and the best way to utilize patient experience survey tools at your practice.

What’s a Patient Experience Survey?

A patient experience survey is exactly what it sounds like. After a patient completes their visit, they may be sent a survey asking them about their experience. There are many different patient satisfaction survey templates, some ask simple yes or no questions while others may ask them to rate their experience on a scale of 1-10.

According to the  Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®), “patient experience encompasses the range of interactions that patients have with the healthcare system, including their care from health plans, and from doctors, nurses, and staff in hospitals, physician practices, and other healthcare facilities.”

These surveys are great for collecting patient feedback about each of these touchpoints. With the results, practices can make strategic changes that can go a long way in improving your practice which can enhance patient outcomes and benefit your bottom line.

Today, patient experience surveys may ask questions spanning from how satisfied they were with waiting times to their experiences with medical staff. And it’s easier than ever to administer these surveys on a tablet or over email after an appointment.

Best Patient Experience Survey Questions

You can find plenty of patient experience survey templates online filled with valuable questions.

Which questions you choose to include in your survey are up to you, but here are a few  common patient satisfaction survey questions according to Survey Sparrow:

• On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our medical facility to your friends and family members?
• Did you have any issues scheduling an appointment?
• How would you rate the cleanliness and hygiene at our medical facility?
• How would you rate the amount of time a doctor spent with you?
• How would you rate the professionalism of our staff?

Benefits of Patient Experience Surveys

A patient experience of care survey can help your practice identify areas of improvement. But it can also do so much more.

Here are a few more reasons to employ patient experience surveys at your practice:

1. Receive Reimbursements

Did you know that patient satisfaction is a critical factor in some value-based care reimbursement models? TechTarget explains that providers can get  paid for hitting a certain quality threshold where patient satisfaction is a major part of that equation.

Utilizing  CAHPS® surveys is a great way to quantify patient satisfaction and factor it into value-based care.

2. Show You Care

By asking for your patient’s opinion, it shows you care about their wellbeing. And this can go a long way in creating a positive relationship between your practice and patients. When a survey asks patients about their experience, it opens a dialogue and ensures your patients feel valued and appreciated.

3. Improve Services Across the Board

Your office staff can have a very different perception of operations than your patients. For instance, doctors and nurses may feel like things are running smoothly because patients are on time and waiting room times are down. However, they may not realize that patients have been struggling with making appointments online which can deter them from seeking care.

A comprehensive patient experience survey can provide you with a holistic overview of the patient experience and their pain points so you can make improvements. Even the smallest change, like more comfortable medical furniture, can improve patient satisfaction.

4. Increase Revenue

When you understand the gaps in care, you can make the changes needed to improve your bottom line. As Patient News explains, these surveys can often help practices  identify personal training needs which can improve performance or issues like long waiting times that can indicate staffing issues.

5. Be a Part of Healthcare Research and Quality Assurance

When your practice collects patient experience survey results, you can help be a part of the bigger picture of improving healthcare. These surveys can tell you a lot about how your practice is performing, but can also be used to identify larger trends in healthcare that can be beneficial for everyone.

Begin making changes to enhance the patient experience today, like investing in comfortable, high-quality medical exam furniture from ExamTablesDirect.  Get the right equipment today!