Ask patients and staff the same care you would want asked of you.
Healthcare asks in two directions at once. Patients, about an experience they had while unwell and probably anxious. Staff, about pressure they may not feel able to describe in a meeting. Both want the same thing from a survey: short, anonymous, and answerable on a phone with one hand.
The questions here are about experience rather than clinical outcome. Was it explained. Was there a wait, and did anybody say why. Did the person leave knowing what happens next. Staff surveys in healthcare look much like any other employer's, except that the workload question matters more and gets asked more often.
When a survey goes out here
- After an appointment, sent the same day while the detail is still there
- A short staff pulse on a rota that never quite settles
- Before and after a change to how appointments are booked
- Community consultation on opening hours, locations or a new service
- Exit surveys, where retention is the whole problem and everybody already knows it
The survey types this sector runs most
Each one comes with its questions already written, the scoring explained, and the mistakes named.
CSAT survey
Customer Satisfaction Score measures one specific interaction rather than the whole relationship. It is the right tool immediately after a purchase, a support ticket or a delivery, and the wrong tool for a quarterly health check.
See the questions PulsePulse survey
A pulse survey is short, repeated, and always asks the same core questions so you can watch a line move. The point is not the score in any single month. The point is the shape over six of them.
See the questions NPSNPS survey
Net Promoter Score℠ is the most asked question in business, and the most wasted. The score tells you where you stand. The sentence after it tells you what to do. FreeSurvey gives you both on the same page.
See the questions eNPSeNPS survey
Employee Net Promoter Score borrows the NPS® question and points it at the people who work for you. It is a good measure and an easy one to ruin, because the moment somebody suspects their answer is traceable, you stop measuring morale and start measuring caution.
See the questionsQuestions worth asking in healthcare
What is different about asking here
- Keep clinical detail out of a feedback survey. Ask about the experience, not the condition.
- People answer these in a parking lot or on a break, so whatever you send has to work one-handed on a phone.
- Staff surveys in healthcare need the anonymity promise kept absolutely. Small teams on a shift pattern are easy to identify by accident.
Answers are anonymous unless you add a question that asks who somebody is. Please do not ask for clinical detail or anything identifying in a general feedback survey. FreeSurvey is a general purpose survey tool and does not claim any healthcare compliance certification, so keep patient records in the systems built to hold them.
Security and dataIs FreeSurvey HIPAA compliant?
No, and we will not tell you otherwise. This is a general purpose survey tool. Use it for experience and staff feedback, and keep anything clinical or identifying in a system built and certified for it.
Do patients need an account to answer?
No. A link, a phone, and no login. That matters more here than in most sectors because of who you are asking and when.
How soon after an appointment should we ask?
The same day. Experience surveys have a very short memory, and by the following week you are measuring a general impression instead.