Patient Satisfaction Surveys: Building Loyalty and Delivering Better Care

Patient satisfaction isn't just another metric—it's the heart of quality care and an essential component of a successful healthcare business. It serves as both a compass and a destination on the journey towards better healthcare outcomes.

Did you know that 68% of satisfied patients consider recommending their healthcare providers to their known ones who need treatment and healthcare? On the other hand, dissatisfied patients can spread negative word of mouth and share negative online reviews that can affect your business.

Patient satisfaction surveys are an effective way to measure and understand the experiences of your patients at various touchpoints of the patient journey at hospitals, clinics, and healthcare centres and help you make informed decisions to enhance patient care, improve patient loyalty, and attract new patients through positive recommendations. Kaiser Permanente, a leading healthcare provider in the US implemented patient satisfaction surveys which resulted in a significant improvement of 30% in the overall patient satisfaction scores.

But what makes a survey truly effective? Is it the questions we ask or where and how we implement the surveys?

Leading institutions are leveraging advanced tools like Zonka Feedback to capture insights at every touchpoint—from admission to discharge. This holistic approach ensures that every voice of patient gets heard, fostering an environment of continuous improvement and patient-centred care.

In this article, we will dwelve into patient satisfaction surveys, their types, benefits, and how they can help you to improve patient satisfaction at throughout the patient journey. We'll also explore real-world examples, suggest some questions, and discuss best practices to create effective surveys using powerful patient feedback software to ensure satisfaction. Let's start with defining patient satisfaction!

TL;DR

Patient satisfaction is the measure of patients' happiness with their experiences with hospitals, clinics, or healthcare organizations. A patient satisfaction survey helps to measure this satisfaction.
There are two types of patients - inpatients and outpatients. Questions are the core of any survey, so you should choose your patient satisfaction questions wisely for both inpatients and outpatients. You can share surveys through various channels - website, email, SMS, in-app and offline surveys.
Patient satisfaction surveys help to build a base of loyal patients, track staff performance, attract new patients, and minimize the risk of litigation.
To improve patient experience and satisfaction, you should ensure smooth processes, less wait time, cleanliness and hygiene of the premises, quality interactions with doctors and other medical personnel, and avoid unnecessary costs for patients. To create effective patient surveys, you should follow some best practices - create short and unbiased surveys, use survey logic and metrics like CSAT & NPS, respond to every feedback, and use a good feedback tool.
Zonka Feedback is an effective patient feedback system that can help you create powerful surveys with its amazing features. You can try it for free for 14 days and or schedule a demo to see how it works for your healthcare business.

Measure Patient Satisfaction & Insights

With Patient Feedback Surveys, understand what patients expect and learn ways to satisfy them.

What is Patient Satisfaction?

Patient satisfaction is the measure of how happy and content are patients with their healthcare experience, comprising factors such as quality of care received, communication with healthcare providers or doctors, access to services, and overall hospital or clinic experience.

Patient experience at all touchpoints like appointment booking, waiting, doctor’s interaction, hospital staff interaction, bill payment, etc. have a direct impact on it.

What are Patient Satisfaction Surveys?

A patient satisfaction survey is a structured questionnaire that is used by healthcare businesses to gain insights from patients for measuring the overall satisfaction of the patients or their family members with each aspect.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys-How satisfied are you with the treatment and care provided to you_

Let’s learn about the types of patient surveys.

Types of Patient Satisfaction Surveys

Understanding and enhancing patient satisfaction is crucial for any healthcare provider aiming to deliver exceptional care. The type of survey you choose to gauge patient satisfaction can significantly influence the quality and depth of feedback you receive. Selecting the appropriate survey type depends on the kind of healthcare institution be it a hospital, clinic, aged care facility, or pharmacy; and the specific touchpoint at which feedback is collected.

Broadly, patient satisfaction surveys can be categorized into two main types: inpatient satisfaction surveys and outpatient satisfaction surveys. Each type serves to address the unique experiences and needs of patients within different care settings.

1. Inpatient Satisfaction Surveys

Inpatients are individuals who are admitted to hospitals or healthcare organizations and receive medical treatment, care, or other medical facilities and services while staying overnight or for an extended period.

Inpatient surveys are surveys designed to gather feedback from inpatients about their experiences and measure their satisfaction with the treatment, care, and related healthcare services at the hospital.

In the inpatient experience surveys like hospital surveys, patient satisfaction questions are asked about various aspects like:

Registration and admission process
Treatment and medical care
Cleanliness of the rooms
Frequency of the doctors’ visit
Behavior of the medical staff
On-premises facilities like pharmacy, laboratories, and quality of meals
Billing and payment process
Discharge process

2. Outpatient Satisfaction Surveys

Outpatients are those individuals who receive medical consultations, treatment, and related services at a clinic or hospital without staying overnight. They visit the healthcare facility for treatment and return home on the same day.

Outpatient surveys are used for gathering feedback and measuring patient satisfaction of the outpatients with their experience of getting consultations, diagnoses, treatment, and related services.

In outpatient experience surveys like clinic surveys or hospital surveys, patient satisfaction questions are asked about various aspects like:

Appointment booking experience
Waiting time for the appointment
Interaction with the physician
Doctors’ knowledge and diagnosis of the ailment correctly
Availability of pharmacy and lab test services
Satisfaction with the charges or fees
Accessibility of the location of the clinic
Comfort at the waiting room
Cleanliness of the clinical surroundings

Patient satisfaction surveys are crucial for enhancing overall healthcare quality. These surveys should be conducted at key points in the patient journey across various healthcare settings such as hospitals, clinics, aged care facilities, and pharmacies.

Here are some crucial touchpoints and the respective surveys which you can use at those touchpoints to measure patient satisfaction in different type sof healthcare institutions.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys for Hospitals and Clinics

Patient satisfaction surveys in hospitals and clinics play a vital role in improving care quality and patient satisfaction. By surveying patients at different stages, healthcare providers can pinpoint areas for improvement and ensure a positive experience.

For Inpatients

Surveys for inpatients help refine the overall patient experience and ensure that the hospital meets their needs effectively. These surveys for key touchpoints include:

Admission Process Feedback Survey: Trigger surveys shortly after admission to gather insights on the patient's and their family's experiences with the admission process. This helps identify any challenges, such as long wait times or complicated procedures.
Medical Tests Experience Survey: Survey patients about their experiences with medical tests. This includes assessing the appropriateness of the tests, staff support, test costs, and the timely delivery of test results.
Hospital Stay and Treatment Feedback Survey: Collect feedback on the overall inpatient experience, including hospital cleanliness, staff conduct, food quality, interactions with doctors, accuracy of diagnoses, and general satisfaction with treatment.
Discharge Process Feedback Survey: Administer surveys during or just after the discharge process to understand patient and family experiences. Focus on the complexity of the discharge procedures, the time taken, billing processes, and support with medical insurance claims.
Post-Discharge Follow-Up Experience Survey: Survey patients after discharge to evaluate their experiences with follow-up consultations and ongoing care from their healthcare providers.

For Outpatients

Surveys for outpatients are essential for enhancing service quality and ensuring smooth and efficient visits. Important touchpoints include:

Appointment Booking Expereince Survey: Survey patients on the appointment booking process, evaluating the availability of convenient times, ease of use of the booking system, and responsiveness of the staff.
Post Check-In Survey: Trigger post check-in surveys to collect feedback on the check-in process, including wait times, efficiency of reception staff, and the clarity of information provided during check-in.
Doctor Feedback Survey: Survey patients about their consultation experience, focusing on the clarity of the doctor’s communication, thoroughness of the examination, and any follow-up care instructions.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys for Aged Care

Surveys in aged care facilities are essential for ensuring high-quality care and satisfaction among residents and their families. Key surveys for different touchpoints include:

Admission Process Experience Survey: Administer surveys to new residents and their families to understand their experiences with the admission process and identify any areas for improvement.
Daily Care Activities Feedback Survey: Survey the residents to collect feedback on daily care activities to ensure residents are happy with the care they receive, staff attentiveness, and the availability of recreational activities.
Health Assessment Survey: Survey residents and their families on the thoroughness of health assessments and the clarity of communication regarding health information.
Family or Visitor Feedback Survey: Send surveys to gather feedback from family members and visitors to understand their views on the quality of care and their satisfaction with the facility's environment and policies.
Staff Feedback Survey: Survey staff to identify areas for improvement in their working conditions, training needs, understanding of residents' requirements, and overall job satisfaction, which can indirectly affect the quality of care.
Post-Discharge Survey: Send surveys just after discharge to collect feedback on the discharge process to ensure it is smooth, efficient, and well-supported by the staff.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys for Pharmacies

Surveys in pharmacies are crucial for improving service quality and ensuring patient satisfaction. Key surveys for variorus touchpoints include:

Prescription Fulfillment Satisfaction Survey: Survey patients on their experiences with prescription fulfillment, including accuracy, wait times, and the professionalism of pharmacy staff.
Medication Consultations Experience Survey: Share surveys to gather feedback on medication consultations to understand patient satisfaction with the advice provided by pharmacists, including the clarity and helpfulness of the information.
Purchase Experience Survey: Administer surveys on the purchasing process to ensure it is efficient, with minimal wait times, and that the staff is courteous and helpful.
Billing Experience Survey: Trigger surveys just after billing to collect feedback on the billing process to identify any issues with billing accuracy, clarity of statements, and the ease of processing payments or insurance claims.

Why use Patient Satisfaction Surveys?

Patient experience surveys are important in terms of collecting patient insights, ensuring satisfaction, and attracting new patients to your hospital or clinic. Let’s understand this by exploring its benefits.

Let’s understand this by exploring its benefits.

Higher Loyalty among patients - Healthcare is a competitive industry because patients nowadays are smarter and more aware than before. Asking patient perspectives and taking actions to enhance satisfaction boosts patient retention and loyalty, and they choose you again whenever they need you. Cleveland Clinic implemented regular patient satisfaction surveys and saw a 30% increase in patient loyalty over five years, reflecting the positive impact of addressing patient feedback proactively.
Way to keep track of your staff performance - Patient feedback surveys enable you to track the performance of your healthcare staff be it doctors, nurses, ward boys, facilities, or any other staff. A study conducted by Press Ganey found that hospitals utilizing staff performance feedback from patient surveys improved their overall patient satisfaction scores by 25%, directly correlating staff performance with patient experiences.
Attracting new patients - Patients share their experiences in the form of word of mouth and online reviews. Researches suggest that more than 70% of patients look for online reviews before trying new doctors or healthcare providers. Patient satisfaction surveys help you to build satisfying patient experiences thereby creating good reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations for you which attracts new patients to your healthcare business.
Minimizing the risk of litigation - Negative medical outcomes may lead to legal actions against your doctors, hospital, or clinic. However, by leveraging feedback surveys, you can ensure better healthcare delivery for your patients. If you make the best efforts to treat the patient and provide patients with a great experience, it minimizes the risk of such legal actions. a report by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement indicated that hospitals using patient feedback to improve care processes reduced malpractice claims by 30%, demonstrating the protective effect of addressing patient concerns and enhancing the overall patient experience.

Let’s explore the different channels you can use to share surveys.

Channels to Share Patient Surveys at Different Touchpoints

When it comes to sharing surveys, it is good to use multiple channels to cover the maximum of your patients at various touchpoints to collect their valuable feedback, and make better decisions for your healthcare organization. Here are the channels that you can use at the right touchpoints.

1. Website surveys

You can also share hospital satisfaction or clinic surveys on your official website. Website surveys are ideal for gathering feedback at the point of appointment booking or when patients are browsing for information on your healthcare services.

You can use feedback widgets like popups, slide-ups, bottom bars, and feedback buttons on your website surveys for this purpose.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys-How would you rate your appointment booking experience_

Popup survey appears in the middle of the screen of your webpages with certain user actions or triggers, prompting the users to take a feedback survey. slide-up survey and bottom bars slide in from a side or bottom of the web pages on user actions or triggers set, inviting the users to take the survey. Whereas, feedback buttons are non-intrusive feedback widgets appearing as small tabs displayed with words like 'Feedback' giving users an opportunity to share unsolicited feedback.

2. In-app surveys

In-app surveys are a great way to collect patient insights when you have a healthcare application that people use to book appointments, get medical reports, and receive personalized healthcare information.

If you have such an app, you can easily integrate surveys into it to measure the satisfaction of patients with respect to various touchpoints and experiences like just after booking an appointement, accessing medical reports or personalized healthcare information and medical advice.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys-How easy was it for you to access your medical reports_

3. Offline surveys

Offline surveys can be shared with your patients or guardians at your healthcare facility. They are best suited for capturing feedback at physical locations within your healthcare facility, such as reception areas, patient rooms, waiting areas, billing counters, pharmacies, and cafeterias.

You can set up kiosk device at various locations where patients or their family members can easily approach the kiosk and share feedback.

You can use offline surveys with the help of a good offline survey app that allows you to collect survey responses without the internet save the data collected for weeks, and sync them automatically as soon as your devices get internet connectivity. This also allows you to use hand-held devices like iPads, Android tablets, and smartphone at remote areas to conduct health-asessment surveys.

4. Email surveys

Email surveys are gathering feedback and measuring patient satisfaction just after a patient's visit or treatment, as they can be sent post-appointment or post-discharge to gauge satisfaction.They can be sent as embedded email surveys, email surveys with hyperlinks, and signature email surveys.

Embedded email surveys are sent with an email message along with the first question of the survey embedded and displayed in the email body itself. Email surveys with hyperlinks are sent a normal email message inviting the patients to take the patient satisfaction survey followed by a hyperlink to the survey. Email signature surveys are embedded below the signature of regular emails used for communications like sharing medical reports or receipts to collect unsolicited feedback from the patients.

5. SMS surveys

SMS surveys are effective immediately after an interaction, such as post-consultation or after a service is provided, by sending a survey invitation text followed by a survey link which your audience can open to take the survey and submit their responses. With a good feedback tool, you can trigger SMS surveys at various touchpoints and get a good response rate.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys-How would you rate the affordability of medical care provided by us_

6. QR code surveys

You can also use QR codes to share your satisfaction surveys and collect patients’ feedback about their experience at your hospital or clinic by placing them on brochures, posters, flyers, and digital screens. Your patients can easily scan them through their smartphones and take the survey.

patient satisfaction surveys- survy channels with email, sms, and popup Let’s explore some patient survey examples to better understand what a patient survey looks like.

Some Patient Satisfaction Survey Examples

Here are some sample surveys that can be used to measure patients' happiness and evaluate their experiences. You can use these patient satisfaction examples as direct templates or you can modify them as per your survey needs.

1. Post-Consultation Survey for Hospital (for both inpatients and outpatients)

This survey template is a sample survey for hospitals and can be sent to the patients after they have visited or consulted the doctor in the hospital. A survey like this will help healthcare providers gauge patients' satisfaction with respect to the interactions they just had.

You can use the healthcare patient satisfaction survey template here:

2. Post-Visit Survey Template for clinics or other healthcare facility (for Outpatients)

This detailed patient satisfaction survey template is the perfect patient survey example designed for clinics to collect feedback from outpatients about their entire visit to the clinic or healthcare center and all interactions. This patient satisfaction survey questionnaire will help you gather feedback about your healthcare facility and its processes.

3. Patient Feedback about Doctor Survey

Patient feedback about doctor survey templates can be used to gauge feedback about patient interaction and experience with the doctor can be an invaluable tool for healthcare providers. This patient satisfaction survey template can cover a wide range of aspects related to the patient-doctor interaction.

For example, in a sample patient satisfaction survey, you can ask patients to rate the doctor's communication skills, bedside manner, and the extent to which their concerns were addressed. Additionally, the survey can inquire about the patient's overall satisfaction with the doctor's expertise, knowledge, and treatment recommendations.

Let’s explore some patient survey questions that you can use to gauge patient experience.

How to Improve Patient Satisfaction?

If you want to make sure that the patients in your hospital or clinic are satisfied with your services, you have to take an active part in safeguarding the interests of the patients and providing them with world-class services.

Here are some best practices that can help you in improving patient satisfaction and happiness at your hospital or clinic.

Make your processes easier and simpler - As the patients are already struggling with their health issues, the first step should be to save them from complex and lengthy procedures. Be it appointment booking, admission, medicine purchasing, hospital bill payment, or assistance to get health insurance claims; ensure that all processes are simple and smooth for them.
Reduce waiting time - Long waiting times can ruin a major part of the patient experience. Therefore, ensure patients are given appropriate and most accurate timings of appointment so that they don’t have to wait for long. If you have a high number of patients, hire more doctors and other medical staff.
Improve quality of doctor-patient interactions - Make sure that the doctors are not only good in terms of swift diagnosis, treatment, and quality health care but they are also caring and compassionate towards the patients so patients feel good and recover speedily.
Keep highly trained staff - Make sure that the hospital or clinic staff you have is well trained and decent in terms of behavior along with their responsibilities of providing a patient-centered care.
Ensure cleanliness of the premises - All areas of your premises must be hygienic and clean be it the waiting area, doctor’s cabin, cafeteria, or washrooms. Ensure that your facility doesn't have a foul smell and take appropriate measures like sanitizers to avoid the spread of infections.
Avoid burdening your patients with unnecessary costs - Avoid overburdening your patients with unnecessary blood tests, x-rays, ultrasounds, etc. Ensure that your doctors’ diagnoses are good and accurate and follow the best practices of doing healthcare business.
Collect feedback and take action on it - Always collect patient insights to let them know that you care about how patients feel, their opinions, and experiences, and timely action on feedback to ensure quality improvement and avoid any negative experiences in the future. Collecting feedback and measuring patients' perceptions shows that you are dedicated to providing patient-centered care.

Let’s learn how you can create effective patient satisfaction questionnaires with Zonka Feedback.

How to Conduct Patient Surveys with Zonka Feedback?

You can easily create powerful patient feedback surveys within minutes with Zonka Feedback.

Sign up for Zonka Feedback and Use Survey Builder to choose a patient feedback survey from the a variety of templates. your question types, and survey design with themes and colors.
Go to Healthcare section to choose among various available ready-to-use healthcare survey templates like inpatient surveys, outpatient surveys, health risk assessment surveys, and patient registration forms. These are customizable templates which allow you to add, remove, and modify the questions as per your survey needs.
Customize you survey by choosing among 30+ question types to include in your survey and select the theme, colors, and design, and langauge as per your choice. Whitelabel you surveys to add your own branding.
Utilize advanced features like skip logic, question branching, and answer piping to make your surveys dynamic for the audience.
Use variables and prefills to pass the patient data that you already have, in the survey forms like name, age, and other details of the patient.
Share surveys through various channels like offline surveys through kiosks, iPhones, iPads, Android tablets, and smartphones; SMS surveys, email surveys, and website surveys through feedback widgets.
View real-time responses and reports like comparison reports, and metrics scores like Net Promoter Score and patient satisfaction score after your patients have taken the surveys.
Take action on feedback, and make feedback-driven decisions to improve patient experiences and enhance satisfaction.

Here are some simple tips that you should follow while creating your feedback surveys to make them effective enough to collect valuable feedback from your patients and ensure patient happiness.

Create short and simple surveys - Always make your surveys concise to avoid overwhelming your patients with long surveys. Use ready-to-use survey templates, and closed-ended and open-ended question types with Zonka Feedback to create short, yet powerful patient satisfaction surveys.
Avoid leading or biased questions - Follow a fair approach when surveying your patients. Avoid questions that lead to a certain answer. Also, avoid double-barreled questions and ask about a single aspect in one question as to avoid confusing the patients and ensure accurate survey results.
Leverage satisfaction metrics to gain quantitative feedback - Utilize Satisfaction metrics like CSAT, NPS, and CES to get a quantitative measure of patient happiness.
Add logic to your surveys - Make sure that your surveys sound logical to your patients and that appropriate questions are asked of them. With Zonka Feedback’s feature of survey logic and question branching, you can create dynamic surveys and provide personalized survey experiences to your patients.
Cover all aspects of your healthcare business - Make sure to cover all aspects of your hospital or medical facility so that no issues are left unheard. You can use surveys like microsurveys to target each area and different departments separately with short surveys.
Respond to feedback - Always respond to every patient's feedback whether it is positive, negative, or neutral feedback. Pay special focus to negative feedback by taking immediate actions to improve the patient's experience. Zonka Feedback’s real-time alerts notify you at the right time about the feedback received so that you can take instant action on feedback and close the feedback loop effectively.
Choose a good patient survey tool - Always use a good patient feedback tool to create effective surveys and share them with your patients. A powerful tool like Zonka Feedback helps you collect actionable feedback, and measure and improve patient happiness by taking action on feedback at the right time by closing the feedback loop.

Leverage Zonka Feedback to set up an effective patient feedback system

In the journey towards exceptional patient care, understanding patient feedback is paramount. Zonka Feedback stands out as a comprehensive solution for healthcare providers looking to set up an effective patient feedback system. Its user-friendly interface and robust features make it easy to capture insights at every touchpoint of the patient journey, whether at hospitals, clinics, aged care facilities, or pharmacies.

Implementing Zonka Feedback helps you not only to gather valuable insights but also to foster a culture of continuous improvement. By actively listening to and acting on patient feedback, you can enhance patient satisfaction, build loyalty, improve staff performance, and attract new patients.

It also provides a free trial. Try Zonka Feedback for free for 14 days and see how it works for you to boost your healthcare business.