How To Measure Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare

Posted: January 5, 2023 - By Health Dev

Patient satisfaction in healthcare refers to the degree to which patients are happy with the care they receive. It is an essential metric for providers and organizations to track, as it can be indicative of the quality of care they’re providing.

There are a number of ways to measure patient satisfaction, including surveys, focus groups, and interviews. In today’s competitive healthcare landscape, measuring patient satisfaction in healthcare has become imperative.

In this guide, we explain how to measure patient satisfaction in healthcare and  also emphasize the importance of measuring it..

Patient Satisfaction vs. Patient Experience: How Do They Differ?

Before you can go on to measure patient satisfaction, it’s essential to understand the difference between patient satisfaction and patient experience. While they are often used interchangeably, they actually refer to two different concepts.

Patient satisfaction measures how patients feel about the care they receive. Meanwhile, the patient experience encompasses all aspects of a patient’s interaction with a healthcare organization, from appointment scheduling to billing.

In other words, patient satisfaction is part of the larger concept of the patient experience. A patient’s experience at your practice can be good or bad.

They may be satisfied with the care they received, but unhappy with how their appointment was scheduled. It’s important to keep this distinction in mind when measuring patient satisfaction.

Why Patient Satisfaction Matters

No one can deny the importance of patient satisfaction in healthcare. It forms the basis of how patients perceive their care and whether or not they will continue to seek care from a particular provider.

Is the patient satisfied with how you treated them? Was it easy for them to schedule an appointment? Both of these things help determine if a patient returns to your practice. Here are some reasons patient satisfaction in healthcare matters so much.

Indicates the Quality of Care That You Provide

Healthcare providers have a lot to juggle. They have to provide quality care while also being efficient and cost-effective. It can be a tricky balancing act, but it’s one that’s necessary to provide the best possible care for patients.

Patient satisfaction is a good indicator of the quality of care that you provide. If patients are happy with their experience, it’s a good sign that you’re doing something right. On the other hand, if patients are unhappy, you need to make some changes.

Directly Correlates With Patient Retention

There’s a direct relationship between patient satisfaction and patient retention. If patients are satisfied with their care, they’re more likely to continue seeing the same provider.

But if they do not get the level of care they expect, they’re likely to switch providers. So you can improve retention by satisfying your patients.

Helps Identify Opportunities to Enhance the Patient Experience

Patient satisfaction ties in with the broader concept of the patient experience. The higher the patient satisfaction level, the better the experience is.

You can use patient satisfaction surveys to identify areas where you can improve the patient experience. For example, if patients are unhappy with the wait time, you can work on that.

Measuring patient satisfaction shows you where you fall short. Then, you can use this data to make necessary changes and ensure a high patient satisfaction level.

Contributes to Your Practice’s Overall Success

The overall success of a practice depends on how happy its patients are. Satisfied patients keep returning to you for their healthcare needs. This results in higher revenue, better word-of-mouth marketing, positive online reviews, and higher retention. 

You can use the response from your patients to see how well you’re doing and where you need to improve. You can also use it as a way to show off your successes to potential new patients. Therefore, patient satisfaction is of paramount importance if you want your practice to be successful.

How You Can Measure Patient Satisfaction

There are many ways to measure patient satisfaction in healthcare. Here are some ways to collect patient feedback.

Send Patient Satisfaction Surveys

Patient satisfaction surveys are a popular and effective way to measure patient satisfaction. You can send these surveys electronically or by mail.

When curating your survey, ask questions that will give you actionable insights. For example, you might ask patients to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 10. You might also ask open-ended questions about what patients liked and didn’t like about their experience. Here are some questions to ask in your patient satisfaction survey:

• How would you rate the quality of care you received?
• How would you rate the cleanliness of our facility?
• How would you rate your overall experience?
• Is there anything you would like to share about your experience?

You can also ask about the post-care experience in the patient satisfaction questionnaire. For example, you might ask if patients are satisfied with their follow-up care plan.

Instruct Staff To Ask Patients How Their Visit Was

Patient communication with nurses is helpful for getting feedback about their experiences. For example, you can instruct staff to ask patients how their visit is going and if they have any questions or concerns.

For instance, if a patient appears to be in pain, the staff can check in to see if they’re comfortable and offer additional pain relief options. If a patient is unhappy with their care, the staff can work to resolve the issue.

Such feedback can be collected in real time and used to improve the practice. Train your staff to ask questions about the patient’s experience throughout their visit.

For instance, the receptionist can ask the patient if they had any trouble scheduling their appointment. Likewise, the nurses and doctors can ask the patient how they feel and if they have any questions or concerns.

Observe Your Patients’ Behavior

Another way to measure patient satisfaction in healthcare is to observe how your patients behave. For instance, are they happy when they arrive at your practice? Do they seem to enjoy their visit? Are they engaged in conversation with the staff?

You can observe how patients interact with your practice’s website and social media. Do they leave positive reviews? Are they active on your social media pages? Your patients’ behavior can give insight into how satisfied they are with the medical care they receive.

Discuss Patient Satisfaction in Meetings Regularly

Every healthcare practice should have regular meetings where they discuss the steps required to improve healthcare quality. You should also include patient satisfaction in these meetings.

This will help ensure that your team is focused on meeting the needs of your patients. Here are some factors to discuss in these meetings:

• Feedback collection: Discuss which methods you will use to collect patient feedback and how often you will collect it.
• Follow-up: Discuss how you will follow up with patients who had a negative experience. How will you ensure they do not have a similar experience? How can you improve their satisfaction?
• Action items: Discuss what action items need to be completed based on the feedback collected. Who is responsible for completing these items? When will they be completed?
• Monitoring progress: Discuss how you will monitor the progress of your patient satisfaction efforts. What metric will you use? The metrics often depend on the environment in a medical practice. For instance, the metrics for a dermatology practice will be different from the metrics for an orthopedic practice.

Check Your Online Reviews

Patients leave reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, and your practice’s website. Checking these reviews regularly can give you insights into how satisfied your patients are.

If you see a negative review, check what the customer is complaining about. Then, you can work on improving patient satisfaction by addressing their concerns. Also respond to positive reviews to acknowledge your satisfied patients.

It’s important to maximize the number of positive reviews related to your practice. Other potential patients will see these reviews, which will help improve your practice’s reputation.

Track Patient Retention Rates

Patient retention rates are an excellent way to measure patient satisfaction. Patients who are happy with their care are more likely to stay with a practice. To calculate patient retention rates, divide the number of patients seen in a given period by the number of patient visits in that same period. 

For example, if a practice sees 100 patients in a month and those 100 patients make 200 visits, the patient retention rate would be 50%. A higher patient retention rate means your patients are satisfied with their healthcare quality. You can designate patient satisfaction scores based on the retention rates.

For example, if the patient retention rate is above 80%, you can categorize it as “Very Satisfied.” If the patient retention rate is between 60% and 80%, you can put it in the “Satisfied” category.

Keep Tabs on Referrals

Many healthcare practices track the number of referrals they get from existing patients. This is another way to measure patient satisfaction.

A referral means that patients are so happy with the care they received that they are willing to recommend the practice to their friends and family. You can offer incentives to patients for referring new patients to your practice.

For example, you can offer a discount on future visits or services. You can also enter patients into a drawing for a prize.

When you get a new patient, ask them if an existing patient referred them. If so, you can thank the referring patient with a card or a phone call.

By keeping tabs on referrals, you can get an idea of how satisfied your patients are. The more referrals you get, the more satisfied patients are with the quality of care at your practice.

Place Feedback Kiosks in Your Practice

A feedback kiosk is a computer that patients can use to rate their experience and offer suggestions. You can place this kiosk in the waiting room or exam room. You can also use tablets or smartphones to collect feedback. 

Here’s how a feedback kiosk helps in measuring patient satisfaction:

• Real-time feedback: If you have a feedback kiosk in your practice, the patient will offer their feedback as soon as they experience your services. This will help you quickly understand what areas need improvement.
• Quick action: You can address patients’ concerns immediately if you have a feedback kiosk. For example, if the kiosk shows that patients are waiting too long to see the doctor, you can take steps to reduce their wait time.
• Customized questions: You can customize the questions that the feedback kiosk asks patients. This will ensure that you’ll collect feedback relevant to your practice.
• Patient engagement: Feedback kiosks help in engaging patients. They can provide valuable insights that will help you improve patient satisfaction.

When setting up a feedback kiosk, make sure you:

• Place the kiosk in a visible and convenient location
• Ensure that the kiosk is easy to use
• Offer instruction on how to use the kiosk
• Make certain the questions are relevant to your practice

You can use this information to calculate patient satisfaction scores and determine the shortcomings in your patient care. For instance, you might need to provide patient-centered care, reduce wait times, or streamline appointment scheduling.