Why Patient Experience Surveys Are Essential for Modern Healthcare Business Strategy

Healthcare has always revolved around outcomes. However, outcomes no longer tell the whole story. Patients compare clinics the same way they compare restaurants, hotels, and online retailers. They look at reviews, note how long they had to wait, and decide if they felt like their voices were heard. Excellent clinical care does not ensure patient retention. It is possible to lose patients if the experience surrounding that care is cold, complicated, and long.

This is the reason patient experience surveys have transitioned to be core components of healthcare business strategy. Traditionally, these surveys were done as an afterthought and were largely administered by staff. However, with these surveys, business leaders can gain actionable insight and understanding to make data-driven decisions. We will cover what these surveys actually measure, how they help with retention and growth, how they optimize processes, and how to build a survey program that actually achieves results and is not just a collection of unread surveys.

What Patient Experience Surveys Actually Measure

Distinguishing between patient experience and overall patient satisfaction is important when considering experience questions. Asking “Were you satisfied?” gives no specifics and is not particularly useful. Meanwhile, “Did your provider explain your treatment options in a way you could understand?” is focused on a specific experience and provides actionable feedback for improvement.

Meaningful tools to measure the kind of experience questions described already exist in the U.S. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) offers the CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) surveys. These surveys help capture a variety of experiences related to health care, including communication and the coordination of care, and offer a way for organizations to benchmark against their peers rather than gauging whether results are good or bad.

Rather than generate a mound of comments, if a practice consistently collects this data, it begins to build a trend line. Leaders are then able to see if changes made to staffing or the layout of the office, for example, moved the numbers in the right direction and can stop relying on the feedback of the most vocal patients.

Ultimately, good patient experience has a positive impact on the three Rs: retention, reputation, and revenue. Patient experience is a major underrated financial lever in healthcare. Surveys help identify the small irritating issues that lead patients to switch providers and assist in retaining a practice’s patient base.

Consider how the average patient leaves. It’s rare to see someone storm out after just a single incident. Usually, it takes a series of minor, annoying issues over time to drive away patients. Those may include phone lines that ring for way too long, bills that don’t make any sense, or front desks that don’t know your name. Nothing, by itself, is worth a complaint, so patients stop scheduling appointments. Because surveys aren’t usually sent, the reason for the patient’s lack of follow up is never found.

Reputation works in the same way. Online reviews are public, permanent, and heavy weighted by new patients choosing a provider. A structured survey program gives you an early warning system. You can identify and solve problems before they spread to the review universe. Surveys can also be used to reinforce positive experiences.

Some organizations also use loyalty metrics from other industries. The Net Promoter Score is an example and is built around a single question. Used in combination with other questions, it can help give upper management a number to track over time.

The bottom line is that increased retention adds to LTV and lowers CAC. Better referral rates lead to greater business growth that is less dependent on marketing. Surveys can help answer why these things aren’t happening.

Efficiency and Staff Performance

Patient feedback is an operational audit. Patients observe the entire process, from the first phone call to the last bill. Patients are used to evaluating the entire service, not just the care. Long waits, confusing signs, illegible paperwork, and inadequate discharge instructions all appear in survey responses. You’ll find them long before they appear in financial reports.

To help improve operations, you must view feedback as data and not as decoration. When several patients have similar concerns, you must recognize those as process issues and give them a monetary value. In the process, you’ll find ways to get staff time back, allowing staff to focus on other things and interact with patients rather than perform unnecessary tasks and/or dealing with complaints. You’ll also find ways to reduce the length of patient visits.

Surveys help with employee assessment and recognition. Rather than basing assessment and recognition on subjective analysis, leaders can recognize staff who make patients feel like they are treated with courtesy and respect. Staff will also respond to feedback if it’s paired with recognition for the good work they do.

Digital care changes this. With the growth of telehealth and remote services, the experience no longer ends at the clinic door. Patients meet virtual psychiatrist via video visit. The patient judges the experience based on the quality of the video, how easily and privately they logged in, how connected they felt to the psychiatrist during the video visit. Traditionally, these types of issues don’t show up in clinical metrics. But they should, as they strongly impact whether the patient will continue care. Survey technology allows organizations to capture clinical metrics to better keep patients engaged in care.

Building a Survey Program That Drives Action

Collecting feedback is the easy part. Knowing how best to use the feedback is the tough part. A strong program follows these practical principles.

Survey technology allows you to easily send surveys to patients. However, surveys still suffer from low completion rates and rushed answers. Aim for a handful of focused questions and send them a short time after the visit. Use an online or text message survey link, as many patients prefer to complete surveys on their phone.

Ask patients to score various aspects of their care experience, but also leave an open comment box. A drop in access score tells you something is wrong. However, to better understand the issue and what to fix, you need the comment explaining why there was a drop in score.

Protect trust and preserve privacy. Patients only answer surveys honestly if they think their answers won’t affect their treatment, and their answers are secure. Be truthful about the reasons for data collection, abide by all laws, and make participation voluntary.

Close the loop. Nothing discourages feedback faster than silence. Respond to patients’ serious concerns. Notify your patients when changes are made based on the feedback. A simple statement such as “you told us wait times were too long so we adjusted our scheduling” makes patients feel like they are part of the solution, and reinforces participation.

Assign ownership. Designate a person or small group to be in charge of reviewing the feedback, identifying concerns and solutions, and making recommendations to the department leads. They should set improvement goals and review progress towards goals each month. Have a more in-depth discussion each quarter.

Connect results to strategy. Bring surveys and patients’ feedback to planning and budgeting meetings. Customers are always right, and if they consistently give a high rating to a service or program, perhaps the service or program should be expanded. If customers consistently express concerns about a service line, look into increasing the service line staff or extending service hours. Surveys and customers’ feedback should always be part of Quality Improvement work.

Conclusion

Patient experience surveys are essential to patient loyalty and retention, business growth, operational efficiency and the cost of doing business. They discover why patients are loyal, why patients leave, identify operational inefficiencies and allow for fair and adequate employee development and growth. In a market with increasing patient choice, and more demanding patients, an organization can not survive with guesswork.

The organizations that thrive will be the ones that listen systematically and act visibly. It is advisable to start small. Choose a few questions, send them out post visit, routinely review the results, and communicate and implement changes. Over time, this creates a cultural norm to incorporate the patient voice for all business decisions, both small and large.