40+ Patient Experience Survey Questions and Tips

Assessing Patient Experience can help you deliver better care and ensure patient satisfaction. Here are the top Patient Experience Survey Question to help you cature patient feedback.   

69% of patients say that they would switch their healthcare providers for better services. 70% of patients say that they would choose a medical provider that sends emails or text messages for follow-up or preventative care. Further, almost 50% of patients consider long waiting times as the most frustrating part of visiting a doctor. 

This highlights the vast gap that prevails between the expectations and needs of the patient and what healthcare providers offer. In order to fill this gap, healthcare providers need to understand patients' perspectives and focus more on Patient Experience.

And there is no better way to do this than to conduct Patient Experience Surveys.

These surveys can prove to be a great tool to uncover valuable patient insights and understand more about the patient's needs and expectations and the challenges they may face with your healthcare services. And to make your surveys effective enough to serve this purpose, it is necessary to include the right Patient Experience Survey Questions.

Measure Patient Feedback and Satisfaction👩‍⚕️

Create your healthcare surveys and questionnaires and gauge feedback from patients in real time.

In this article, we will learn about the most effective Patient Satisfaction Survey Questions that you should include in your Patient Feedback Surveys to effectively collect Patient Feedback and some cool tips to conduct powerful Patient Experience Surveys. Let's start by understanding what exactly is Patient Experience and Patient Experience Surveys.

Table of Contents

• What is Patient Experience?
  • How to Measure Patient Experience?
• What is a Patient Experience Survey?
  • Patient Experience Survey Questions
  • Inpatients and Outpatients Survey Questions
• Tips to Create Patient Experience Surveys
• Zonka Feedback Patient Experience Survey Tool

What is Patient Experience?

Patient Experience can be defined as the sum of all interactions that patients go through while taking treatment and healthcare services from a clinic, hospital, or healthcare center. This begins with the very first interaction, phone call, or message that the patient or their family member has with the healthcare provider. And it continues till the routine check-up, post-treatment support, and much more. 

Patient experience covers all aspects of the patient journey. Right from appointment booking, visiting the clinic or hospital, waiting time, interactions with the doctor, courteousness of the staff, tech-capabilities of the medical facility, medicines, procedures, hospitalization, to the post-care support or anything they go through in and after their entire course of treatment, it cover everything.

Patient Experience can be inpatient as well as outpatient.

• Inpatient Experience refers to the care and services received by a patient who has been admitted to a hospital or other healthcare facility for a specific period of time. Inpatient care typically involves the patient experience in hospitals with overnight stays, where patients receive comprehensive medical treatment, monitoring, and support for acute or complex conditions. 
• Outpatient Experience pertains to the care and services provided to patients who visit healthcare facilities for diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care without requiring an overnight stay. Outpatient care covers a broad range of services, including consultations, diagnostic tests, minor procedures, therapies, and follow-up visits. Patients in an outpatient setting typically return home on the same day of their visit. 

How to Measure Patient Experience?

Gauging Patient Experience requires you to do a simple thing, i.e., ask the patients how they perceive their experience with your hospital or healthcare center. And the best way to ask them is by sharing Patient Experience Surveys. Let's learn about Patient Experience Surveys.

When looking to measure patient satisfaction, here are a few elements that you must keep in mind:

• Accessibility of healthcare professionals
• Access to medical care
• Medical care quality
• Communication and Information Transparency
• Interpersonal skills of the healthcare provider and the staff members
• Financial aspects of care
• Facility standards
• Dietary services

What is a Patient Experience Survey?

A Patient Experience Survey is a systematic tool used to gather feedback from patients about their healthcare encounters. It consists of a set of questions with the aim of measuring the quality of healthcare and the satisfaction that the patients received through it.

Patient Experience Surveys help in understanding patient expectations, the level of care provided, and the feedback generated with the experience of the patients.

A Patient Experience Survey can be conducted at various touchpoints, such as diagnosis, discharge, billing, etc. Moreover, at Zonka Feedback, we enable healthcare organizations to collect patient information and feedback across various channels, such as mobile, tablet, kiosk, website, mobile app, weblink, email, SMS, and QR code. This is because patients may like to engage through different channels based on their convenience and ease of access, and having an omnichannel presence will prevent missing out on any critical data.

Here is a patient satisfaction survey template that you can use to gauge patient experience. You can use the template as it is, or you can add more questions based on the kind of feedback that you want to collect from your patients. 

Let's explore the Patient Experience Survey Questions that you should use to collect Patient Feedback and measure Patient Satisfaction.

Patient Experience Survey Questions

You can measure success across all aspects of healthcare with a single Patient Experience Survey. The key is asking the right health survey questions about the most important metrics that together show a clear picture of patient satisfaction levels in your facility.

Here are the Patient Experience Survey Questions that you should be asking your Patients while collecting their feedback through surveys.

1. NPS Survey Question to Assess Patient Experience

An NPS or Net Promoter Score survey question measures Patient Experience in terms of their loyalty towards your hospital or healthcare brand. An NPS Survey Question asks the patients about their probability and willingness to recommend your healthcare services to others.

NPS is a critical indicator of Patient Satisfaction since patients would recommend your services to their friends and known ones only if they are satisfied with them. Here is the NPS Survey Question.

On the basis of your experience with our healthcare services, how likely are you to recommend our healthcare facility to your friends and known ones on a scale of 0 to 10?

2. CSAT Survey Question for Patient Experience

Customer satisfaction survey questions measure the level of satisfaction of the patients with your healthcare services. You can ask this question to measure customer satisfaction with every aspect of your healthcare services, from medical care and advanced technology to staff interaction and ease of payment, and also the overall Patient Satisfaction with your hospital or clinic. 

Collecting feedback on the overall quality of care that patients receive will help you discover where you stand on the scale of unsatisfactory to excellent and how far you need to go. Here is the CSAT Survey Question

How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the healthcare facilities at our hospital/healthcare center?

3. CES Survey Question for Assessing Patient Experience

A CES survey question measures the accessibility of the healthcare facility, i.e., patients' ease in making appointments or bookings for consultations, treatments, and lab tests. The answers to a CES question help in calculating the effort of patients in getting medical care. 

Great accessibility to healthcare is important to ensure Patient Satisfaction because it doesn't matter if your healthcare offers top-notch medical services when patients are struggling to get appointments. Measuring CES will be your first step to ensuring that patients can access healthcare at your facility instantly when in need. Here is the CES patient feedback survey question that you can ask to know the amount of efforts they had to put in

Do you agree that it was convenient was it to schedule an appointment with us?

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Somewhat Agree
• Neutral
• Somewhat Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

4. Follow-Up for Patient Experience Surveys

A follow-up question is used after an NPS, CSAT, or CES Survey to ask the patients the reasons for the way they rate your healthcare services in the above surveys. This question is critical to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your healthcare facilities and understand the issues and concerns of the patients (if any) with your hospital of healthcare services. 

Here is the follow-up question you should ask your patients. 

Would you please let us know the primary reason for your rating?

5. Open-Ended Questions for Patient Experience Surveys

There are only so many questions that your Patient Experience survey can cover. However, you may miss out on hidden aspects of the Patient Experience they may encounter at your hospital or healthcare center. Therefore, make sure to include open-ended questions to allow your patients to share their feelings and perspectives in their own words.

Here are some examples of open-ended Patient Experience Survey Questions that you can include in your feedback survey.

Would you like to share any special experience you had in our hospital or health care center?

Did you face any challenges with our hospital or healthcare services?

Would you like to share any suggestions for our hospital/clinic to make our services better for you?

You don't need to use all the above open-ended questions. Rather, you just need to ask one of the above three questions that suit your requirements. An open-ended space is essential to identify different patient sentiments and get the most accurate Patient Feedback.

Inpatient and Outpatient Survey Questions

The questions stated above are common for inpatients and outpatients and can be modified accordingly. However, you can conduct different types of patient satisfaction surveys for inpatients and outpatients. The goal should be to cover all aspects of a healthcare experience to accurately measure satisfaction. 

Since healthcare transactions are primarily on an inpatient and outpatient basis, we have given separately the questions you should ask your inpatients and outpatients. Here are the two categories of questions.

Inpatient Survey Questions

Inpatient surveys are a valuable tool for healthcare centers to gather insights into the experiences of patients who are admitted and stay overnight. These surveys help gauge the overall patient experience and identify areas of improvement. By asking the right questions, healthcare providers can gain valuable feedback that can be used to enhance the quality of care and services provided.

To ensure an effective inpatient survey, it is important to ask specific questions that capture the unique experiences of these patients. Here are some key inpatient patient experience survey questions that you should consider asking:

• How would you rate the convenience of scheduling an appointment with us?
• How long did you have to wait to be seen by the healthcare provider?
• How long did you have to wait after diagnosis before the treatment started?
• How would you rate the accessibility of our facility in terms of location?
• How would rate the level of comfort speaking to the medical expert about your health issues?
• How would you rate the attentiveness of the healthcare provider while listening to your problems?
• How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the treatment?
• How would you rate the knowledge and proactiveness of our medical staff?
• How would you rate the use of the latest technology at our facility?
• How would you rate the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff?
• How empathetic were the medical experts and the staff?
• How would you rate the staff members' knowledge of health insurance and co-pay?
• How would you rate the availability of all the necessary medical services?
• How would you rate the cleanliness and hygiene at the facility?
• How would you rate the effectiveness of staff in assisting you with health insurance?
• How would you rate our staff members' efficiency in conducting health examinations and lab tests?
• How effectively did our staff explain the payment options?

Outpatient Survey Questions

Outpatient surveys are a crucial tool in understanding the experience of patients who visit healthcare facilities for quick check-ups, appointments, or treatments that do not require an overnight stay. These surveys provide valuable insights into the outpatient experience and help healthcare providers identify areas for improvement. When designing outpatient surveys, it is important to focus on specific aspects such as the duration of the appointment, interactions with staff, facilities available in the waiting area, and more.

To gather comprehensive feedback from outpatients, consider incorporating the following survey questions:

• How would you rate the use of the latest technology at our facility?
• How would you rate our operating rooms/patient wards?
• How would you rate the level of care during the transition from hospital to home/another facility?
• How would you rate the quality of meals for patients?
• How would you rate the quality of food available in the cafeteria for visitors?
• How adequate and comfortable was the rest area for visitors?
• How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the treatment?
• How would you rate the use of the latest technology at our facility?
• How would you rate the staff members' knowledge of health insurance and co-pay?
• How would you rate the availability of all the necessary medical services?
• How would you rate the cleanliness and hygiene at the facility?
• How effectively did our staff explain the payment options?
• How would you rate our staff members' efficiency in conducting health examinations and lab tests?
• How would you rate the efficiency of the appointment scheduling process?
• Did you experience any delays or wait times during your visit? If so, please specify.
• How satisfied were you with the cleanliness and comfort of the waiting area?
• Were the staff members courteous and attentive to your needs?
• Did you have access to necessary amenities such as water, magazines, or Wi-Fi in the waiting area?
• Were you provided with adequate information about your diagnosis, treatment plan, and any necessary follow-up appointments?
• How would you rate the overall quality of care you received during your outpatient visit?

Here are some tips and best practices to create an effective Patient Experience Survey that is capable of fetching out the most important patient insights, which will help you improve your Patient Experience and thus make your healthcare business successful.

Tips to Create Patient Experience Surveys

Now that we know the key questions that we can ask in any patient experience survey, it is crucial to highlight certain tips that can help you create more effective patient experience surveys.

By following these tips, you can create more effective patient experience surveys that will provide valuable insights and help improve the overall quality of care at your healthcare facility.

1. Include a Mix of Rating & Open-ended Questions in the Survey

A well-rounded patient experience survey should include a mix of rating questions, where patients can rate their satisfaction on a scale, and open-ended questions, where patients can provide more detailed feedback in their own words. This will allow you to gather both quantitative and qualitative data.

Quantitative questions will help you measure Patient Experience in quantitative terms and fetch you a numeric result like 85% of the patients were satisfied with the medical care they received. This will help you in assessing where your healthcare services stand. Qualitative questions will allow patients to share their challenges with you, which will help you identify the areas of improvement on which you should work to make your services better for the patients.

2. Have Consistent Scales in the Survey Questionnaire

Surveys with different survey scales can end up confusing patients. So, if a question has a 5-point scale, try to have the same scale in the other questions too. It will not only be convenient for your patients to respond but would also help you assess the responses accurately when you finally collate them to create reports.

3. Add Logic to Your Surveys

Not all questions in your survey may be relevant for all patients. And filling out answers in an unnecessarily long survey questionnaire can end up frustrating your patients. So, apply survey logic to your surveys with the help of good Patient Experience Software.

An effective Patient Feedback Software like Zonka Feedback provides you with advanced features like Question Branching and Skip Logic that help you make your surveys dynamic and conversational for the customers.

1. Skip Logic determines the screen the participant sees next based on the answer chosen on the previous screen.
2. Hide Logic hides or more questions based on the answer chosen without having to click on ‘next.’
3. Question Branching helps you ask the right questions to the patients based on their previous responses. For instance, you can ask separate follow-up questions to your satisfied, neutral, and dissatisfied patients. For instance, for your satisfied patients, you can add a thank you note with the follow-up question. Likewise, you can apologize to the dissatisfied patients for their poor experience and ask where things went wrong.

4. Don’t Ask Leading Questions

Asking leading questions is a way of manipulating patients’ or their relatives’ answers.
For example, a question, “How clean and hygienic were the hospital wards?” assumes that the hospital environment was clean and hygienic, causing them to feel obliged to give a positive answer. On the other hand, the statement, “Please rate the cleanliness and hygiene of our facility on a scale of 1 to 10,” aims at collecting honest feedback from the patients.

5. Prioritize Key Areas of Patient Experience

Focus on the key areas of patient experience that are most important to your healthcare facility. This could include factors like wait times, staff friendliness, cleanliness, communication, and overall satisfaction. By prioritizing these areas, you can tailor your survey questions to gather specific feedback.

6. Consider Anonymity and Confidentiality

Patients may be more willing to provide honest feedback if they know that their responses will remain anonymous and confidential. Assure patients that their feedback will be used to improve the quality of care and that their personal information will not be shared or used for any other purpose.

7. Regularly Review and Analyze Survey Data

Once you have collected survey responses, take the time to review and analyze the data to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Use this feedback to make data-driven decisions and implement changes that will enhance the patient experience and close the feedback loop.

So always be fair in your survey approach to get the best response rate with the most accurate answers.

Zonka Feedback Patient Experience Survey Tool

Your Patient Experience Survey can only prove to be effective when you ask all the necessary questions across the critical satisfaction metrics. And Zonka Feedback survey tool is designed to help you do exactly that. Here's an overview of what you can do using our intelligent survey software:

• Include NPS, CSAT, CES, open-ended, and follow-up questions in a single survey.
• Use patient survey templates or customize them with our easy-to-use survey builder.
• Share surveys across multiple survey collection channels, including mobile, tablet, kiosk, email, SMS, website, mobile app, weblink, QR code, and live chat. 
• Set up custom alerts for the patient satisfaction team and resolve issues almost instantly. 
• Track and measure patient feedback through different surveys on a central dashboard. 
• Get real-time responses and keep your team in the loop. 
• Extract useful insights from patient data using our smart reporting and analysis tool. 
• Brand surveys to make them more identifiable and increase the survey response rates.
• Use different types of survey logic to make your surveys more interactive and relevant. 

Each feature is designed to help you understand your patients’ expectations better and build loyalty. 

With Zonka feedback, you can quickly create and share your Patient Experience Surveys across all channels and measure the feedback to make data-driven decisions and improve the overall experience.  

Try Zonka Feedback for free for 7 days and see how it works for your healthcare institute or facility.