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Nurses, doctors, and other hospital staff increasingly embrace that maximizing patient satisfaction is a ‘must-have.’
It’s no longer a luxury to serve the deeply felt needs of the patients.
Patients want to feel they’re being heard. In other words, it’s their needs that come first.
As healthcare personnel, how do you uncover patients’ needs?
This is where patient satisfaction surveys come in.
Given the importance of patient satisfaction in healthcare, we believe it’s helpful to define and describe elements that influence it.
One of these elements is a patient satisfaction survey.
Imagine you’ve just put together a patient satisfaction survey to gather responses.
How do you analyze this data for actionable insights?
We recommend you use survey-based visualizations, such as the Likert Scale Chart.
These charts are designed to help you extract insights from your survey responses.
Besides, they’re easy to read and interpret, as you shall see later.
Microsoft Excel lacks ready-to-go and insightful survey-oriented visualization designs like Likert Scale Charts.
We’re not advising you to dispose of your Microsoft Excel.
Install a particular add-in in your Excel to access ready-made survey charts.
Before jumping into the blog’s core, we’ll address the following question: what is a patient satisfaction survey?
While improved health is the ideal outcome of any hospital visit, there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Happier patients are more likely to be healthier patients.
The real measure of patient satisfaction requires a bit of a deeper dive, as you shall see later.
The patient satisfaction survey is a tool to measure significant aspects of your patient’s experience. It can help you to measure their satisfaction with the quality and care of the healthcare service provider.
You can calibrate your patient satisfaction survey to investigate the following aspects, namely:
In the past two decades, patient satisfaction surveys in healthcare have gained increasing attention as essential and meaningful data sources for identifying gaps.
And developing an effective action plan for quality improvement
Healthcare sectors across the world are increasingly moving towards continuous quality improvement.
This is aligned with Donabedian’s declaration for incorporating patient perception into quality assessment — signed in the 1990s.
You have an ethical obligation to incorporate patient-centered care in your healthcare mission and purpose.
Most healthcare facilities increasingly use patient satisfaction surveys to design quality improvement programs.
How?
They incorporate patients’ perceptions and opinions in their design and intervention processes.
So, what are the benefits of a patient satisfaction survey?
Insights into patients’ perceptions can help you to build meaningful and lasting patient/provider relationships.
Also, a patient satisfaction survey can help establish effective care processes grounded in empathy.
Patient satisfaction survey examples can help you to design care systems that are grounded in the following:
Operating without real data is like shooting darts in the dark.
Use patient satisfaction surveys to avoid common issues, such as patient appeasement, that create an illusion of quality.
And this is because they can help you to learn if you’re meeting your patients’ expectations.
Remember, measuring patients’ perceptions of your services can provide you with valuable information on which to build quality improvement programs.
Check out the benefits below.
Patient survey examples we’ve put together can help you to spark meaningful conversations with patients.
Your patients will discover you’re listening to them.
While this may not seem significant now, it’s critical to improving healthcare outcomes through data analytics in healthcare. A satisfied patient is likely to either return in the future or refer your healthcare brand to their friends and family members.
If you listen and show empathy to your patients, word of mouth will soon spread. And this implies you won’t have to spend more on marketing.
Research shows there’s a correlation between positive health outcomes and patient engagement.
A relationship based on empathy is likely to make patients feel confident about managing their conditions. Besides, patients can easily recall necessary information and knowledge.
Patients are likely to report that the chosen treatment was right for them. Also, they’ll actively participate in monitoring and prevention activities.
Some patients may feel satisfied with their care and treatment. And because of this, they will likely adhere to their chosen treatment according to protocols.
By performing patient satisfaction surveys, you’re demonstrating to patients that you care.
Yes, you care about the quality of their care. And you’re looking for ways to improve your services.
It also signals that you want them to actively participate in managing their health. Patients who are actively involved in managing their illnesses are likely to be engaged in their treatment and care.
Issues like long waiting times and booking appointments problems are irritating to patients.
Often, you’ll find they aren’t shy to express their disappointment on the aforementioned issues.
But the same is rarely applied, especially when appointments are readily available and queues are well-managed.
Patient satisfaction survey examples allow you to identify exactly where things are going south for you. You’ll also learn where you’re getting things right as a healthcare provider.
It will give you a chance to celebrate your strengths. And, you’ll be able to uncover obstacles preventing you from getting positive healthcare outcomes.
Secondly, it can empower you to explore the possibilities of doubling down on your strengths.
Remember, you can learn as much from positive feedback as from complaints and product returns.
As a healthcare provider, you have an ethical obligation to ensure your services are inclusive and accessible.
Unless you have lived experience of being marginalized, there must be gaps in your knowledge in your facility.
For instance, you could be excluding a section of the population by not providing translated healthcare information in various languages.
Digital check-in kiosks increase the convenience of bookings among the younger population. But it could be a nightmare for elderly patients who seldom keep up with technology.
A patient satisfaction survey can help you overcome blind spots that negatively impact inclusivity and accessibility.
Patient satisfaction survey examples provide a perfect opportunity to identify potential healthcare delivery issues.
Designing surveys around urgent issues is a proven tactic for driving continuous improvement.
According to the Medical Group Management Association, almost 80% of top medical healthcare facilities use patient satisfaction survey examples to assess various issues, such as the professionalism of staff and availability of appointments.
Improving performance is not a “one-and-done” situation. So, we recommend you perform follow-up surveys to gain more insights.
In the coming section, we’ll share a template with patient satisfaction survey questions (examples).
We’ve put together patient satisfaction survey examples to set you up quickly.
Let’s dive in.
This question probes the satisfaction level and likelihood of referral.
Remember, referrals will only come after your patients are satisfied with your services. Meet their needs to expect a referral.
This question is probing the user journey experience in your healthcare funnel.
We recommend you make your journey as seamless as possible to increase bookings and physical traffic.
The first point of contact should be as accommodating as possible to inspire potential patients to complete their user journey.
The care of nurses/doctors and the professionalism of administration and other staff members influence your patients’ satisfaction.
Use this question if your goal is to uncover whether your staff is professional and empathetic to patients.
In the coming section, we’ll take you through how to conduct an online survey.
You don’t want to miss this.
Google Forms is an online survey questionnaire creator that provides a quick and innovative way to gather your patients’ sentiments.
It is a quicker alternative to asking patient satisfaction questions via email. And it’s loaded with all the standard survey fields, such as dropdowns and multiple-choice questions, to gather data.
Let’s assume you’ve created a Google Forms survey to gather patients’ opinions.
Your goal is to share the form with your intended audience.
Follow the easy steps below.
In the ensuing section, we’ll take you through how to analyze patient satisfaction survey results in Excel.
You don’t want to miss this.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application you can use to store, organize, and analyze data.
However, it lacks charts and graphs designed purposely to visualize patient satisfaction survey data.
We’re not advising you to do away with Excel.
You can easily install an add-in in your Microsoft Excel to access a patient satisfaction survey chart, such as Likert Scale Chart.
The application is called ChartExpo.
ChartExpo is an add-in you can easily install in your Excel to access patient satisfaction survey examples.
This section will use Likert Scale Chart to visualize the data, as shown by the screenshot below.
To get started with ChartExpo, install the ChartExpo add-in for Google Sheets from this link.
Your patient satisfaction survey questions should cover each of the three areas, namely:
A patient satisfaction survey is a special type of survey you can use to collect patient feedback.
It can help you to measure their satisfaction with the quality and care of the healthcare service provider.
You can calibrate your patient satisfaction survey in healthcare to investigate quality and costs.
Healthcare facilities worldwide are increasingly embracing that maximizing patient satisfaction is a ”˜must-have’.
It’s no longer a luxury to serve the deeply felt needs of the patients.
Patients want to feel they are being heard.
How do you uncover patients’ needs?
This is where patient satisfaction survey examples come in.
Imagine you’ve just put together a patient satisfaction survey to gather responses.
How do you analyze this data for actionable insights?
We recommend you use survey-based visualizations, such as Likert Scale Charts. These charts are designed to help you extract insights into your survey responses.
Microsoft Excel lacks ready-to-go and insightful survey-oriented visualization designs like Likert Scale Charts.
We’re not advising you to dispose of your Microsoft Excel.
So, what’s the solution?
Install an add-in, such as ChartExpo, to access the Likert Scale Chart and other patient satisfaction survey-based visualizations.
ChartExpo is a Microsoft Excel add-in loaded with insightful patient satisfaction survey-based visualizations, such as the Likert Scale Chart.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access ready-made graphs for visualizing patient satisfaction survey questionnaires, such as the Likert Scale Chart.
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