To develop a patient-satisfaction survey, consider assembling a focus group of key staff members, patients, and other community members. Through group processes such as brainstorming, nominal group process, and multi-voting, the focus group can arrive at a group of topics that are of concern to the staff, administration, and clinic users. Survey questions can then be developed from the list of topics that the focus group agreed on. Once the survey instrument has been completed, the focus group can also be used to pilot-test the instrument to ensure that it is gathering the information the group wants to collect.
There are few scientifically validated patient-satisfaction surveys available for ambulatory health care in general or for dentistry in particular. Every clinic and service population will have unique problems and concerns, so you will probably need to develop your own survey instrument.
Constructing questions for your survey using a Likert scale can be valuable if the selection options are clear. A Likert scale measures the extent to which a person agrees or disagrees with a statement. The most common scale is 1 to 5; for example, 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=not sure, 4=agree, and 5=strongly agree. A frequency distribution of the responses for each item is a simple and effective method for analyzing responses to Likert scales.
A five-point Likert scale would look something like the following:
Please answer the following questions by marking the appropriate column. |
|||||
Strongly Agree |
Agree |
Neutral |
Disagree |
Strongly Disagree |
Does Not Apply |
Tips for Formatting and Wording a Survey