How to design a patient experience survey (with free downloadable template)

A stellar patient experience is what keeps patients returning again and again to your practice. 

Patient experience is the sum of all interactions across the patient lifecycle. It includes everything from how a patient schedules an appointment to their interaction with the practitioner in the room. As healthcare premiums continue to rise, patients expect customer service to match, and the patient experience has never been more important.

Practices can evaluate the patient experience using a patient experience survey. A patient experience survey — as you'll explore in the template below — is a short post-visit questionnaire. It's a key way to improve your patient care and generate reviews you can use online as part of your growth strategy. 

Patient experience surveys are best conducted after each patient visit. Ideally, your practice should send patients a short survey a few hours after the appointment. That way you can capture feedback while the visit is still fresh in the patient’s mind. 

Your practice should send patient surveys electronically to deliver on patient expectations for streamlined, digital services and communications.

Consider sending a post-care email with instructions for follow-up care, information on payment (if applicable), and a link to the post-visit survey. Practices can use platforms like Google Forms or a comprehensive healthcare management platform like Tebra, which will automate the process.

Practices using Tebra benefit from surveys that are sent automatically via text or email about 3 hours after the booked appointment. If patients don’t respond, the platform even has a short, repeat cadence that nudges patients to complete the survey at their earliest convenience. 

Practices can measure the patient experience through a feedback program, like patient surveys and questionnaires. Measuring the patient experience is the first step to systematically improving it. 

Patient experience surveys often leverage a combination of scaled, rating questions and open answers. They cover topics like wait time, staff friendliness, and provider visit. 

Streamline patient surveys by including questions that speak to patient experience and patient satisfaction. You can ask about services and functionality (patient experience), as well as satisfaction with those services (patient satisfaction). Check out the patient experience survey template below for ideas.

For example, practices can inquire about how a patient booked an appointment (patient experience), and how they felt doing so (patient satisfaction).

With a multitude of touchpoints across the modern patient journey, practices should include questions that speak to each. Ask about: 

HIPAA privacy regulations state that medical facilities may conduct “quality assessment and improvement” activities as part of their healthcare operations. 

Medical facilities can use protected health information (PHI) as part of their healthcare operations, and therefore in surveys or questionnaires, as long as they state that in their privacy policy. 

Most practices give patients their privacy notice on or before the first visit. To remain HIPAA-compliant, explicitly include patient surveys in your privacy policy.

Running a patient experience survey will generate valuable insights for your practice, create the opportunity to capture reviews, and make patients feel your practice values their feedback.