Healthcare surveys: Templates, questions, and best practices

When it comes to improving your relationship with patients, healthcare surveys deserve special attention. At SurveyPlanet, we are committed to providing the best survey questions and templates so that the needs of your patients can be easily ascertained. This will show patients that you genuinely care about them, as well as help you better understand the weaknesses of your operations. Just sign up for a SurveyPlanet account and get started on your first healthcare survey with proven templates or develop your own questions. Easy, right?

The importance of healthcare surveys

Why are surveys used in healthcare?

Healthcare surveys are now one of the most popular research methods utilized in the industry because you can easily collect data, gain valuable insights, and know exactly how to improve your relationship with patients.

The main importance of healthcare surveys lies in adequately measuring patient satisfaction. But the potential of healthcare surveys goes far beyond that. You can use a wide variety of healthcare surveys and data from patients and employees to determine areas that require additional attention.

Types of healthcare surveys

People are far more likely to provide constructive feedback via surveys than in person. The data is less biased and easier to gather and analyze. Depending on what kind of feedback you're looking for, there are several different types of healthcare surveys to consider.

Healthcare patient satisfaction survey

A patient satisfaction survey is one of the most frequently used healthcare surveys. They give patients the opportunity to express their opinion on the quality of services they've received and whether they were satisfied with your staff.

In a direct conversation, most patients are likely to give you half-hearted answers. There also won't be any hard data to analyze. It's much better to gather their opinions and experiences through patient satisfaction surveys.

Pro tip: Combine these with other types of healthcare surveys to get more comprehensive data.

Learn more about patient surveys

Hospital visit healthcare survey

What better way to better understand the quality of a hospital's services than to ask patients directly? It's easy to overlook some problems, but by using hospital-visit healthcare surveys you'll know what your patients think.

Send a follow-up hospital-visit survey, asking discharged patients about their experience, whether they felt comfortable, and their overall satisfaction with their hospital visit.

Doctor visit healthcare survey

You can also gather data about specific doctors in your healthcare institution. That's what doctor-visit surveys are all about! You'll be able to precisely measure patient satisfaction with each doctor and have data to back up recommendations for improvements.

Health insurance healthcare survey

By acquiring information on healthcare insurance, you can precisely assess the needs of every individual.

Health insurance surveys help provide insights about which type of health insurance your patients have, how satisfied they are with their options, and what they'd like to change.

Healthy habits healthcare survey

Daily habits greatly influence our health. With healthy habits surveys, information from patients can be collected and recommendations for healthier habits made before it's too late. This serves as personalized prevention and patients will be grateful for your efforts.

For example, if a patient responds that he smokes regularly, you can refer him to a pulmonologist and forward information about programs to help them quit smoking.

Healthcare surveys best practices

Even though healthcare surveys help you better understand the needs of your patients, they can lead to subjective or even incorrect information if not conducted properly.

To avoid mistakes, here are some healthcare survey best practices:

• Carefully choose your terminology: You don't want to use too many medical terms and risk confusing respondents.
• Ask direct questions: Instead of vaguely asking how respondents feel about their last appointment, follow up on a specific problem they mentioned at their last appointment.
• One question at a time: Avoid asking double questions. “Does the medication work for you and do you take it every day? Yes or no?” This is a type of double-question that should be avoided. Patients might have different answers for each part and won't be able to clearly express their thoughts if questions aren't formulated properly, leaving you with less valuable insights.

Healthcare surveys advantages

There are several reasons why institutions eagerly use healthcare surveys. When well-designed, carefully worded, and thoughtfully organized they have many advantages:

• Cost-effective.
• Less time-consuming.
• Patients feel you genuinely care about their experience.
• Patients are willing to share their honest opinions about the service they received; you don't have to worry about biased responses.
• Reach many patients quickly and efficiently. Most are more than happy to participate in healthcare surveys.
• Get accurate data.
• Use the collected data to provide even better care.

Healthcare surveys questions and templates

Are you asking yourself "What questions should I ask in a health survey?" Having a hard time figuring it all out? Don't worry! We've great healthcare surveys questions that will help you kick-start the process:

1. How often do you take nutritional supplements?
2. How often do you exercise?
3. How could we improve the overall quality of service at our hospital?
4. Please briefly describe any chronic illnesses or ailments that you have.
5. Approximately how long did you have to wait to see your doctor?
6. How long have you had your current health insurance plan?
7. Would you recommend your health insurance provider to a friend or co-worker?

that’s not all! We have many more healthcare survey questions you can access by simply signing up for a free SurveyPlanet account. Make patient satisfaction your priority and take it to the next level by getting feedback with healthcare survey templates.