5 Reasons Patient Surveys Are Necessary
“Can I ask you a few questions about the service you received today?”
Customer surveys are everywhere. Whether you are at a brick-and-mortar store making a purchase or surfing online, you’ll eventually run into someone wanting you to take a personal survey. The same should hold true for hospitals and medical facilities as patient surveys are cropping up more and more every day.
In an industry where staff and patients have the most interaction, it’s vital for medical professionals to know how a patient feels about their operations. Discovering trends in patients’ overall experiences with their medical service can help a medical staff improve its efficiency. A patient survey can also point out problems while obtaining important feedback concerning any health service changes.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Here are the top 5 reasons a medical facility should have patient surveys.
1: Patient Satisfaction
Finding out about the patient’s experience in the medical facility or when undergoing certain treatments lets patients know that the medical facility cares about their questions and comments.
Patients feel that voicing their opinions has positive effects on their personal healthcare. This in turn has patients listening more to their doctors and becoming receptive to treatments. Giving patients the chance to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction – and making the necessary improvements – shows that the medical facility has a commitment to excellence; this commitment should encourage patients to return to that medical facility for future treatment.
2: Service Improvements
Medical facilities can gather the information from a patient survey to improve operations in medical departments, such as outpatient and billing services. The survey pinpoints what was lacking in the service. It can go in-depth concerning the staff’s professionalism, such as how they handled a busy waiting room or diffused a patient’s anger over billing problems.
Patient surveys can also address the building aspects of the medical facility. Questions can pertain to how clean the waiting rooms were, or if halls and doorways allowed enough room for wheelchairs to maneuver safely throughout the facility
3: Litigation Aspects
Patients should always know their rights concerning their medical treatments, especially when faced with potentially dangerous procedures that can lead to other serious injuries or even death. If the medical facility fails to inform the patient concerning the risks of certain medical treatments, that facility can be held liable for medical negligence.
To avoid litigation cases, the medical facility can perform patient surveys to properly screen patients on whether they can undergo the medical treatment, and whether the patient understands all the risks involved with the procedure.
4: Changing Procedures
If the medical facility or hospital is changing any aspect of its medical procedures, such as accepting different insurance, billing providers, or how patient emergencies are handled, the facility can inform the patient about the new changes while learning about the patient’s opinions. Although the medical center may still go forward with the changes despite any negative patient feedback, the facility can institute the changes carefully so that patients can gradually accept and feel comfortable with the changing medical practice.
5: Following Regulations
Patient surveys can inform the medical facility of problems that may cause them to be in direct violation of state and federal laws. Patient data from the survey can inform the medical facility whether access into the building was in any way restricted or impeded by medical equipment, unauthorized vehicles or because of the lack of required access ramps.
The medical facility can also find out if the necessary transportation services were available to patients. Were wheelchair accessible vehicles present by the main doors at the time required? Were the vehicles parked within reasonable distance and was the driver of the wheelchair accessible vehicle knowledgeable in how to assist the patient into and out of the vehicle? These important questions on the patient survey can ensure the medical facility is obeying state and federal medical regulations regarding the safety of patients.
Patient surveys are necessary for the proper operation of any type of medical facility — large or small. It only takes a few minutes to pass out. And it can improve medical operations for generations of patients.
More From Improve Customer Satisfaction
- Improving patient care through surveys
- Benefits of patient surveys start with listening
- Referrals With Patient Surveys
Improve Customer Satisfaction Recommends
- Arizona Startups Are Tough (BlogGlue)
- Are We Cowboys or Not? (leanblog)
- Liveblogging the Quaid Patient Safety Documentary (leanblog)
________________
PatientSurvey.com is a leading provider of Phone, Online and Paper based Patient Satisfaction Surveys across the globe focusing on Healthcare Providers. One of the only solution provider handling all three mediums using a Single Platform.
Our products and services are being used across a number of different Healthcare Providers. Following is a brief list:
- Offices of Physicians (different specialty)
- Offices of Optometrists
- Offices of Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists
- Dental Clinics
- Chiropractic Clinics
- General Medical and Surgical Hospitals
- Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Hospitals
- Elderly and Persons with Disabilities Service Providers
- Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities
- Rehabilitation Home Providers
- Drug Trial Patient Feedback Providers
- Child and Youth Service Providers
- Home Health Care Service Providers
- Medical Students
Contact Us today to request product demo!
