5 popular patient satisfaction surveys

According to a U.S. National Library of Medicine white paper on the importance of patient satisfaction, “Patient satisfaction affects clinical outcomes, patient retention, and medical malpractice claims.” This is why it’s so important to solicit patient feedback on a regular basis to make sure you’re providing the highest possible service for your patients.

There are many types of patient satisfaction surveys you can use to gauge the quality of your healthcare services and help drive improvements. Typically, patient satisfaction surveys cover key areas of the patient experience, including

• Care from clinical staff
• The hospital environment
• The patient’s experience of the hospital
• Communication between patient and staff
• How the discharge was handled

One of the most well-known patient satisfaction surveys is the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, which is now available electronically. This survey contributes to national star ratings on Hospital Compare, which patients can use as a guide when selecting a hospital.

Generic patient satisfaction surveys are also a popular way to measure standards of patient care. They can help improve your overall HCAHPS star rating.

Discover the user experience questions that will improve the quality of your products and help with design choices.

All patient satisfaction surveys must meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) data privacy obligations. This means the data must be stored and transmitted securely. The following is a list of five popular patient satisfaction surveys.

1. Jotform’s HCAHPS surveys

Jotform has created several easy-to-use HCAHPS surveys. These electronic forms fully enable HIPAA data privacy obligations. (Don’t forget that responsibility or risk is always divided between you and the issuer of any electronic patient survey.)

The surveys include all 29 of the current HCAHPS survey questions that encompass all aspects of the patient’s experience — including while they are an inpatient, as they are being discharged, and as they receive outpatient care.

Traditionally, HCAHPS surveys have been gathered by mail and phone. But in 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the body that processes and publishes HCAHPS survey results, concluded that introducing electronic HCAHPS surveys would improve patient response rates. Jotform’s HCAHPS survey is a new and fast way of collecting this essential data.

2. Jotform’s patient feedback form

This user-friendly patient feedback form contains fields at the top where the patient can input their gender and date of birth. It also features a grid where the patient can rate their overall satisfaction.

The five-point scale that the patient can click on ranges from “very satisfied” to “very unsatisfied.” To make things even easier, the template already comes with questions about six key areas of patient care — doctor knowledge, doctor kindness, nurse patience, nurse knowledge, waiting time, and hygiene. However, you can add, remove, or customize these questions according to your needs or requirements.

At the bottom is a text box where the patient can add comments on how you could improve your service. This can be an effective instrument to get a patient’s perspective on how well your practice or hospital is serving them.

3. Jotform’s patient satisfaction survey BDPT

This service-specific template is a perfect option for physical therapists who want to assess how satisfied their patients are. It begins with two simple questions — the name of the physical therapist and the body part they treated.

These are presented in two dropdown boxes that contain possible answer options to make it even easier for the patient to answer. You can edit the selection of responses to suit your practice’s needs.

The main body of the survey asks the patient to select a score from “very satisfied” to “very unsatisfied” in response to six questions. These questions cover the major areas of focus — from the therapist’s knowledge to the patient’s satisfaction with the information the therapist provided. You can easily edit the questions if you’d like to focus on any more specific aspects of the patient’s physical therapy experience.

4. HHS patient satisfaction survey

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a comprehensive patient survey that you can download and print for your patients to fill in by hand. You can either hand it to a patient while they are still in the hospital or as they depart, or you can mail it to their home.

The patient is invited to answer questions by selecting a number (one through five) that denotes the rating, with one being “poor” and five being “excellent.” If the question doesn’t apply to the patient, they can circle “N/A” (not applicable).

There are 36 questions in total, making it lengthier than an HCAHPS survey. However, the HHS survey provides a more comprehensive look at all aspects of care, ranging from the ease of making an appointment to the ease of following signage within the facility. There’s also space at the end for the patient to suggest improvements.

These questions will give you a detailed view of your practice from a patient’s perspective. However, because the survey is in paper format, it may be harder for you to aggregate and record the results. You can, however, opt to use it as inspiration for questions you’re adding to a customized electronic survey.

5. SafetyCulture

SafetyCulture’s web-based software lets you create your own digital patient satisfaction surveys. Alternatively, you can use their ready-made 18-question or shorter questionnaire templates.

You can provide patients SafetyCulture’s surveys on a tablet while they’re still at your healthcare facility. Practice staff can gather the feedback on a smartphone. All surveys are saved and accessible online. This means that, unlike with traditional paper surveys, you can aggregate your data online quickly and easily without needing to collate it.

The website contains tips for creating questions that are easy to understand and answer. There’s also a dashboard that allows you to view results and track performance over time. If you conduct a lot of surveys and need software to keep track of them, this is a good solution.

You can try any plan for free for 30 days. Plans start at $24 per month.

There are many different types of patient satisfaction surveys to choose from. Does your patient demographic have easy internet access, or would they respond better to a survey mailed to their home? Do they have the time and patience for a long survey, or would a brief questionnaire give you a better snapshot of their perceptions of your practice?

These five examples of popular patient surveys offer options for gaining valuable insights that will help your healthcare facility be even more successful.