Importance of Patient Satisfaction Measurement and Electronic Surveys: Methodology and Potential Benefits

Online surveys conducted to find out customer satisfaction are increasingly important for modern businesses and healthcare organizations. Nowadays online customer satisfaction surveys are inextricably linked to business practices, marketing programs as well as other initiatives aimed at accomplishing customer engagement. A patient/customer satisfaction survey has a number of advantages that contemporary companies recognize, advantages that have been proved in the course of time. Patient/customer satisfaction surveys are not only tools of inviting patients to express their opinion, they are also opportunities to invite patients to learn new information about companies or healthcare organizations, such as innovations or changes, and vehicles of establishing customers’ viewpoints. Patient satisfaction is related to the extent to which general health care needs and conditionspecific needs are met. Evaluating to what extent patients are satisfied with health services is clinically relevant, as satisfied patients are more likely to comply with treatment, take an active role in their own care, to continue using medical care services and stay within a health provider (where there are some choices) and maintain with a specific system. In addition, health professionals may benefit from satisfaction surveys that identify potential areas for service improvement and health expenditure may be optimised through patient-guided planning and evaluation.