Satisfaction survey of all hospital patients

Reger Kinghts

Adapted from a letter to the Institute by Roger Knights.

Supplying all in-patients with 'were you satisfied?' questionnaires is a standard operating procedure at the University of Washington Medical Centre. And the Centre also sends a similar questionnaire to randomly selected out-patients and casualty patients.

The surveys ask, for instance, how satisfied the patient was with:

  • The courtesy of admitting staff;

  • The comfort of the pullow;

  • The flavour and taste of meals;

  • The doctor's ability to listen to me and answer all my questions.

    'Whether staff treated me as they would like to be treated'

    And whether:

  • Nurses introduced themselves to me at the start of each shift

  • I felt that staff treated me as they would like to be treated.

    All hospitals should send out such questionnaires. Doing so would ensure that any egregiously bad policies or practitioners would be complained of frequently enough and emphatically enough to be dealt with in a timely fashion; for administrators would be reporting on broad-based constellations of complaints. Surveying would also be preventative, encouraging staff to avoid giving cause for complaint.

  • Roger Knights, 5446 45 Av SW, Seattle, WA 98136-1108, USA (tel 0101 206 932 5446; fax 0101 206 932 9324).

  • Mary Kaye O'Brien, Market Research Analyst, University of Washington Medical Centre, 1959 N. E. Pacific St, RC-34, Seatle, Washington 98195, USA (tel 0101 206 548 6043). Copies of their questionnaires have been sent by the Institute for Social Inventions to the College of Health (UK) in the hope that the College will encourage hospitals throughout the UK to adopt this practice.

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