Do you use patient satisfaction surveys?

I received an e-mail last week, a couple days after a dentist appointment, asking me if I would participate in a survey about my visit. I gladly answered the few questions online, pleased that they cared how my experience was – just another thing I love about my dentist (which uses an EHR, e-mails and texts appointment reminders, and has some of the friendliest staff of any office I’ve been to).
Read more
The questions included:
- Did you have to wait past your appointment time and if so how long?
- Did staff greet you properly?
- Would you refer us?
There was also a field to enter suggestions, and an option to participate anonymously.

It made me really appreciate that the office wanted to know what they were doing well and what could be improved. It would be nice if all my doctors solicited feedback. (Of course, I loved that I could answer the survey online, but I won’t get into my Web site rant again.)

It also made me wonder how many physician practices conduct patient surveys – and why or why not? We do offer a sample patient satisfaction survey for practices, and I am interested to hear from practices using such surveys, online or on paper.