Before you conduct your own patient satisfaction survey through PatientPoll™, make sure your practice is ready. First, work at cultivating an environment that embraces quality improvement. Your practice’s vision, values, and goals need to be clear upon a new patient’s first visit. They need to feel comfortable putting their healthcare in your hands. HNN can help make it easy for you to share your story with your patients.

Second, determine how much money you can afford to invest in a survey project and how expensive yours is likely to be. For a survey conducted through an outside vendor, “a rough rule of thumb, for a practice with a minimum of three physicians, would typically be in the range of $300 to $400 per physician,” says A.C. Myers, president of The Myers Group, an Atlanta-based firm specializing in health care surveys and data analysis. You can conduct an in-house survey for less than that, but it will require more of a time investment. Staff-related costs might result from the time spent designing the survey instrument, selecting a sample, preparing the survey for mailing, tabulating the responses and analyzing the data. The main physical costs of a survey include paper, printing and postage.

Additionally, keep your staff and colleagues well informed about the process. Let them know when you will introduce PatientPoll™ and how you will interpret and act on the results. And discuss the questions you want to ask a group. Your staff is going to be key to the success and implementation of PatientPoll™ and they need to know this is a collaborative survey that can improve patient satisfaction and reduce staff frustration.

While your improvement projects will focus on areas of weakness, make sure you also plan to celebrate your practice’s successes. When you conduct a patient satisfaction survey, chances are you’re going to get a lot of positive reinforcement about the many things that you are doing well.

To learn more about PatientPoll™ or to get started today, please visit http://info.clearsounds.com/CDM_PatientPoll.