There is, understandably, a never-ending push in the health care industry to improve quality, performance, and the overall patient experience. To continually evolve and improve, hospitals and larger medical facilities utilize a wide array of tools in performing self assessments and benchmarking - one of which is the patient satisfaction survey. Smaller practices, consisting of even just one or two providers, can benefit by following the lead of the major organizations as there is a wealth of information to be learned by listening to your patients.

Regardless of the size of your practice, offering patients the opportunity to anonymously voice their concerns is an excellent way to obtain candid, honest feedback on your practice. Satisfaction surveys will help you:

Identify areas for improvement, Better understand the patient experience, Find opportunities for new services, Understand patient perceptions, and, Improve doctor/patient communication.

It is important to remember that satisfaction surveys should be designed to encourage actionable results. Don't just ask if service good or bad, ask why it was? Was the appointment kept in a timely manner? How long did you have to wait before being escorted to an exam room? How long in the exam room before seeing the doctor?

Surveys should typically be based on a five point scale - i.e. very poor, poor, good, very good, excellent - and be concise in the questions asked. Also make sure to leave enough room for comments - you could spend several weeks designing a survey only to find that your patients' concerns are nowhere close to what you expected; providing a sufficient area for

Several healthcare industry groups offer satisfaction surveys for purchase and some offer helpful insight on sampling, distribution and analysis. Among them is the MGMA (Medical Group Management Association). There are also countless articles and consulting resources accessible on the web that can help you through the process of creating and distributing, as well as analyzing results of satisfaction surveys - so don't hesitate to seek out help.

If done correctly, patient satisfaction surveys can help you understand what its like to be on the other side of the relationship. They can give you an idea of the trends and problems that might not have otherwise recognized - turning an average practice into world class.