Whether you are gathering feedback from current patients or a general market area – a telemedicine perception questionnaire is an effective tool in offering the best patient experience and improving retention rates during this rising digital age.
- What is the first thing that comes to mind when patients think of your healthcare practice?
- How would patients describe their last telemedicine experience?
- When looking for healthcare services, how important is it for practices to offer virtual appointments?
Answers gathered from these telemedicine perception survey questions provide healthcare teams with data-driven insights for better decision-making.
To assure you are collecting the highest quality data, our healthcare market research company shares best practices for conducting a telemedicine perception questionnaire below.
What is a Telemedicine Perception Questionnaire?
A telemedicine perception questionnaire is a structured tool used to assess patients' perceptions, attitudes, and experiences regarding telemedicine services.
It typically comprises a series of questions designed to gauge various aspects such as:
- Satisfaction with the telemedicine encounter
- Perceived effectiveness of the technology in delivering healthcare
- Comfort levels with remote consultations
- Concerns about privacy and confidentiality
- Overall acceptance of telemedicine as a viable healthcare delivery option
This questionnaire helps healthcare providers and researchers gather valuable insights into patient preferences and concerns, ultimately guiding the improvement and adoption of telemedicine practices.
Why Conduct Telemedicine Perception Surveys
Measuring telemedicine perception with surveys serves several crucial purposes in understanding the efficacy and acceptability of remote healthcare delivery.
Most importantly, these surveys provide valuable feedback from patients, allowing healthcare providers to assess patient satisfaction, comfort levels, and concerns regarding telemedicine services.
And by understanding patient perceptions helps healthcare professionals tailor telemedicine experiences to meet patient needs effectively, thus enhancing patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans.
Additionally, telemedicine perception surveys aid in identifying barriers and challenges that may impede the widespread adoption of telemedicine, such as concerns about privacy, technological limitations, or cultural preferences.
By addressing these barriers, healthcare providers and policymakers can work towards optimizing telemedicine systems to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare for all patients, regardless of geographical location or physical mobility.
Tips for Measuring Perception of Telemedicine
1. The Shorter the Survey, The Better
For those new to market research, this concept is a hard one to grasp. Heck, the whole reason you are conducting a telemedicine perception survey is because you have many questions you want to be answered. But hear me out.
Do you have the time to spend 20+ minutes filling out a survey? Your patients likely don't either.
Our healthcare market research company recommends including no more than 15 to 20 questions in a telemedicine perception questionnaire. On average, this will take respondents anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes to complete.
Anything longer and our research firm starts to see extreme survey dropout rates. This means you will have wasted time writing and programming questions very few people will answer.
Recommended Reading: How Many Questions Should I Ask in My Survey?
2. Optimize the Survey for Mobile
Nowadays everything can be done from our mobile devices – in fact, we have come to expect it. For this reason, it is important to optimize your telemedicine perception survey for mobile viewing.
When respondents receive the email invitation, chances are they will open it on their phones. If the survey is not mobile-friendly, respondents will get agitated and close out the questionnaire before fully completing it.
Incorporating aspects such as large text and shorter sentences can make all the difference in response rate and engagement. For more best practices, read our blog post: 4 Tips to Make Your Online Survey More Mobile-Friendly.
3. Offer an Incentive
Offering a reward or an incentive for participation in market research is always recommended. This is especially important if respondents taking the survey are not current patients.
Without the promise or thought of getting something in return, there is nothing persuading a respondent to provide their time and feedback.
Depending on your budget, the choice of reward can range.
Here are a few incentive options our healthcare market research firm often suggest:
- $5 Amazon gift cards to each respondent
- Raffle off a $50 Visa gift card to 1 or 2 respondents
- $125 cash or check to 1 respondent
The type of incentive also depends on what is asked of patients. For example, the reward should be higher if you are asking respondents to include 5 video responses compared to a simple 10-question multiple-choice survey.
Recommended Reading: Higher Rewards Can Equal Lower Market Research Costs.
4. Consider a Third-Party Healthcare Market Research Company
There are many reasons healthcare organizations choose to partner with a third-party market research company to conduct a telemedicine perception questionnaire. Here are three.
Save Time and Resources
First and foremost, you and your team are spread thin as it is. Do you have the time it takes to write, program, field, and analyze a telemedicine perception questionnaire?
Rely on a market research company, like Drive Research to carry the heavy lifting. We work as fast as you need us to, delivering high-quality results that are critical to your organization.
Unbiased Results
The main purpose of this study is to gather perceptions and sentiments regarding your practice. If your logo is shown throughout the questionnaire, it will bias results.
For context, if at a restaurant a waitress asks how her table waiting service was, are you more likely to provide honest feedback to her face or on an anonymous comment card?
The same can be said of market research. Having a market research company act as the middleman is the best way to obtain the most accurate results possible.
Trusted Third-Party Source
Lastly, to increase the return-on-investment of market research many organizations repurpose survey findings in their marketing materials.
Think: “9 in 10 dentists recommend our toothpaste.”
It is important to back these findings with a trusted, third-party source. Otherwise, patients are skeptical to believe these statistics because healthcare facilities can skew the results in their favor.
Example Telemedicine Perception Questions
Here are some example telemedicine perception questions that could be included in a survey:
- How satisfied were you with your recent telemedicine consultation experience?
- Did you find the telemedicine technology easy to use?
- How comfortable were you communicating with your healthcare provider through telemedicine?
- Did you feel that your privacy and confidentiality were adequately maintained during the telemedicine appointment?
- Compared to in-person visits, do you feel that telemedicine appointments are as effective in addressing your healthcare needs?
- What are your primary concerns, if any, about using telemedicine for future healthcare appointments?
- How likely are you to recommend telemedicine services to friends or family?
- Did you experience any technical difficulties during your telemedicine appointment? If yes, please specify.
- How would you rate the overall convenience of telemedicine compared to traditional in-person visits?
- Do you feel that telemedicine has improved your access to healthcare services?
These questions cover various aspects of the telemedicine experience, including satisfaction, usability, privacy concerns, effectiveness, and overall convenience, providing insights into patients' perceptions and attitudes towards telemedicine.
Recommended Reading: Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire: 10 Questions You Should Be Asking
Conduct a Telemedicine Perception Questionnaire with Drive Research
Drive Research, a national market research company located in New York, specializes in quantitative and qualitative services. Our team has years of experience working with healthcare organizations across the country.
To receive a quote for a telemedicine perception questionnaire with our team, contact us below!
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Rodgers
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Senior Marketing Manager. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
