5 methods for improving survey responses
5 methods for improving survey responses
Planning a patient satisfaction survey? If so, here are five tips that will help to improve your response rate:
1. Make the survey anonymous.
While you can provide a space for the patient to put his or her name and contact information on the survey, patients feel more secure about being honest and forthright if the survey is anonymous, says Keith Borglum, vice president of Professional Management & Marketing, a Santa Rosa, CA, medical consulting firm.
And if your patients fill in the section asking for a response, be sure you phone or write them personally.
2. Don’t make patients turn in surveys at the office.
Related to the confidentiality issue allow your patients to mail in their responses. If you ask them to turn them in to your receptionist, Borglum says they will be afraid their response will be read immediately and anything negative shared with the physician quickly, thus reducing their anonymity.
You may also want to have the surveys sent to an address other than your office. That will also increase the confidence patients have in their anonymity. You can have them sent to a post office box or to a physician’s home address.
3. Have the doctors hand out the surveys.
Patients respond better to surveys if the physician hands out the survey and personally asks for a response, says Borglum.
4. Have an even number of response choices.
Borglum says if you give patients a 1-5 rating choice, most of your answers will be "3". If, on the other hand, you give them a 1-4 choice, you will have more meaningful responses.
5. Start with mild questions.
Your first questions should be about innocuous subjects, such as the adequacy of parking, says Borglum. Then progress to the more difficult issues, such as the care patients receive from their physician.
• Keith Borglum, Vice President, Professional Management & Marketing, Santa Rosa, CA. Telephone: (707) 546-4433.
• Brenda Morrison, Office Manager, Douglas Kaufman, MD, San Pablo, CA. Telephone: (510) 234-1084.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.