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Your patients experiences and perceptions of your healthcare services and quality of care your practice provides you valuable information to build improvement efforts. A good way to collect this type of information is through patient satisfaction surveys.
Implementing a well-designed survey can help serve as a tool to improve communication between your staff, providers and practice and your patients. Below are 5 unexpected benefits of conducting patient satisfaction surveys.
1. Surveys Communicate to Your Patients You Care
You need to assess your patients' entire experience, beginning with their first impression of their first interaction of your practice. This can be anything from the receptionist greeting them as they walk through the door to your practice's website.
One important thing is their experience when they schedule their appointments. Therefore, you can ask these and similar questions: - Were you satisfied with the appointment time availability?
- Did you receive an email or call to remind you of your appointment?
- Were you able to talk with someone when you called for your appointment?
- Questions like these convey the message that "you care" about your patients' experience.
2. Surveys Communicate to Your Staff You Care About the Patients
Surveys convey to your staff that you care enough about the experiences your patients have with your practice and you're willing to collect feedback to improve their experience. A patient satisfaction survey built with online survey software can help you identify the areas of your practice that need improvement so you can take the necessary steps to enhance the patients' experience.
3. Surveys Are a Great Way to Provide Your Staff With Positive Reinforcement
Use positive patient comments on your surveys as a way to commend and compliment your staff as a team or as an individual. Even a small amount of positivity in your practice can enhance things like:
- Motivation
- Creativity
- Efficiency
- Productivity
Providing your staff with regular encouragement and recognition can increase their productivity significantly.
4. Surveys Help Improve Day-to-Day Operations
Use this survey tool to improve your medical practice's daily operations. When you improve on the overall effectiveness and efficiency of your practice, it results in satisfied and happier patients, enabling your practice to enjoy higher profitability. Ask questions like:
- How would you rate the cleanliness of our practice?
- How long did you have to wait to see a provider for your appointment?
- How would you make your visit better?
- The slightest improvements to your daily operation can improve your patients' experience.
5. Surveys Help you Evaluate your Patients' Perception of Your Practice
Practices have three main objectives when interacting with their patients:
- Making care accessible
- Providing quality healthcare
- Treating patients with respect and courtesy
Knowing this, focus your survey questions to where they cover the three primary areas: access issues, quality issues, and interpersonal issues. Remember, your goal with patient satisfaction surveys isn't to evaluate if your patient received proper medical treatment. Obviously, you do want to ensure they do, however, the goal of your surveys is to evaluate how your practice treated the patients, not just your providers.
Learning your patients' overall satisfaction level can significantly impact your practice. To take advantage of what you learn, you have to not just read the survey results, but address any issues they show. By continually assessing your patients' satisfaction through online survey software and using their feedback to improve your practice, you'll demonstrate your commitment level to your patients and improve their overall experience with your practice.
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