Is it a good idea to measure the satisfaction level of patients in a hospital or healthcare center? Some people think they are beneficial for improving the health practice which ultimately translates back into better care and happier patients. Others are not so convinced that taking these patient satisfaction surveys will be conducive to better times for the hospital and avoid these surveys as the results do not justify the costs. Some hospitals do not like to be measured at all. Also, some feel that the data may be unreliable. However, it is recommended that a patient satisfaction survey is conducted whenever there is a patient who has stayed in the healthcare center or hospital for a considerable amount of time as it shows that the staff and the community that the hospital is interested in quality and demonstrates that ways to improve are always being looked at.

Before conducting the patient satisfaction survey, make sure that the questionnaire and the patient are ready. Cultivate an environment that indicates that you are looking for quality improvement and put the patient at ease by mentioning that responses are confidential and will be used only for furthering improvement. Then determine how much you are going to spend on the survey project and all its expenses. If you are going to use an outside vendor, the expenses will increase for collection of data and its analysis. It is definitely better to conduct the survey in-house where staff related costs will be from the time spent on designing the survey questionnaire, selecting a sample, administering the survey, tabulating the responses and then analyzing the data. Physical costs include paper, printing and postage. Keep hospital staff and colleagues informed about the process and let them know how the results will be interpreted and acted upon.

So what kind of questions should make their way into the patient satisfaction survey questionnaire? There are usually three areas that healthcare practices want to provide to their patients – quality health care (is the patient satisfied with the medical care provided?), make the care accessible (was it easy to make an appointment of get a referral?), and treat patients with courtesy and respect (are the doctors and nursing staff caring, compassionate and confident?). The questionnaire in itself should simple, brief, clear and consistent. Do not forget to ask the essential question, `How satisfied are you with your physician?’ While this questionnaire might have a leaning towards the areas of weakness, it is necessary that the healthcare practice also plans to celebrate successes especially when the patients give a lot of positive reinforcement about the many things that are being done well in the premises.

Questions in the questionnaire of the patient satisfaction survey must be worded carefully and should be easy to understand. Avoid asking biased, vague or double-barreled questions. Use the 10 point Likert scale for measurements ranging from `strongly disagree’ to `strongly agree’. This will bring consistency.