Here are some of the best questions for a patient survey about access to after-hours care, plus tips to help you build a strong survey. If you want to move fast, you can generate a survey for patients about after-hours care using Specific in seconds.
The best open-ended questions for patient survey about access to after-hours care
Open-ended questions are powerful for getting real, detailed insights from patients. They capture context, let people explain what’s really on their mind, and help uncover the “why” behind their experiences and frustrations. Studies show that 76% of patients add extra comments to open-ended sections, and 80.7% of healthcare teams find those responses useful—proving the value of moving beyond simple checkboxes. [3]
Open-ended questions are best when you want to understand nuance, identify unmet needs, or let patients express barriers in their own words. Here are 10 of the best open-ended questions for patient surveys about access to after-hours care:
Can you describe your experience trying to get medical help outside of regular office hours?
What challenges have you faced when seeking care at night or on weekends?
How easy or difficult was it to reach a healthcare provider after hours?
What would make it easier for you to access medical care outside normal hours?
Have you ever avoided seeking care because after-hours services weren’t available? Please explain.
In your own words, what’s most important to you about after-hours healthcare?
Can you share a time when you needed urgent care after hours? What happened?
How satisfied are you with the current after-hours options your provider offers?
If you could change one thing about the after-hours care you receive, what would it be?
Are there specific services or supports you feel are missing from after-hours care?
Patients are far more likely to share nuanced, actionable feedback when asked open-ended questions. These types of questions unlock unexpected insights and help teams see opportunities for improvement.
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for patient survey about access to after-hours care
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you need to quantify how many patients feel a certain way, or if you want to quickly identify patterns before digging in with follow-ups. They also help some respondents get started—choosing from a small set of options feels less daunting than writing a long answer from scratch.
Question: How easy is it for you to reach a clinician after regular office hours?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
Question: Which after-hours services have you used in the past year?
Phone advice line
Walk-in clinic
Scheduled telehealth visit
Emergency department
Haven’t used after-hours services
Question: What is your main barrier to accessing after-hours care?
Long wait times
Not sure how to contact a provider
Lack of transportation
Cost concerns
Other
When to follow up with "why?" Adding a “why” follow-up after a choice is critical whenever you want to understand root causes, not just the surface issue. For example, if a patient selects "Very difficult" for after-hours access, following up with “Can you tell us why it was difficult?” leads to actionable feedback and helps identify improvements for specific patient needs.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including “Other” is important in multiple-choice questions, especially if you suspect patients may have barriers or experiences not captured in your predefined list. Letting them elaborate in a follow-up gives space for unexpected needs to surface—sometimes it’s these surprises that spark the biggest improvements.
Should you use an NPS-style question for after-hours patient surveys?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a simple, yet powerful way to gauge how likely patients are to recommend your after-hours care—boiling feedback down to a quick score. For patient surveys, especially about access to after-hours care, an NPS question can help track overall satisfaction and benchmark improvement over time. Try generating an NPS patient survey here.
Pairing NPS with open follow-ups on “why” or “what’s one thing you’d change?” amplifies the insight. This combo can uncover if dissatisfaction is driven by, for example, difficulty reaching a clinician after hours—an issue that, by the way, is associated with higher emergency department use and unmet needs: 37.7% emergency visits among those reporting difficulty, versus 30.4% among those who did not.[1]
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are the secret sauce of conversational surveys. Instead of collecting incomplete or vague answers, automated follow-up logic (like Specific’s AI-driven follow-ups) ask clarifying questions in real time. This digs into the “why” and “how” of every response, capturing nuanced insights that static forms miss entirely.
For instance, let’s look at what happens if you don’t ask follow-ups:
Patient: "It was hard to get help after 6pm."
AI follow-up: "Can you share what made it difficult—was it finding contact information, wait times, or something else?"
Without this follow-up, you’d never know if the real issue was with unclear phone instructions, long waits, or another pain point entirely.
How many followups to ask? In most cases, 2-3 layers of follow-ups are enough to capture essential insights without frustrating the respondent. Specific lets you configure this, and even skip ahead when you’ve got a complete answer—keeping the survey fluent and natural.
This makes it a conversational survey: The back-and-forth flow mimics a real interview, boosting engagement and trust. Patients can clarify, elaborate, or point out needs in their own words—leading to much richer data.
Easy AI analysis for all responses: Even if you collect tons of unstructured text, tools like AI response analysis make it simple to find recurring themes, pain points, and strengths. Just chat with your results, ask for trends by patient type, urgency, or clinic.
Automated follow-ups are a completely new experience compared to classic forms: generate and test a conversational survey for your patients to feel the difference firsthand.
How to prompt ChatGPT (or GPT-4) to suggest strong after-hours care questions
If you want to create great survey questions from scratch or refine your list, AI is a fast and effective assistant—but the prompt matters. Here’s a simple way to start:
First, ask:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for patient survey about access to after-hours care.
The trick is context. Results are always better when the AI knows a bit about your clinic, patients, or concerns. For example:
We’re a primary care clinic in a multi-ethnic city. Many of our patients work non-traditional hours, struggle with transportation, and may not speak English as a first language. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a patient survey about access to after-hours care, with attention to cultural and language barriers.
Once you have a draft list, try:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Next, review the categories and drill down where needed. For instance, if categories include “barriers,” “satisfaction,” and “suggestions,” you can prompt:
Generate 10 questions for the “barriers” and “suggestions” categories focused on after-hours care.
This will quickly give you a tailored, focused question bank—even if you’re not a survey design expert.
What is a conversational survey (and why does AI matter)?
A conversational survey doesn’t feel like a form. Instead, it’s an interactive back-and-forth, with smart AI asking questions, probing for details, and responding to what the patient actually says. The result? Richer feedback, less respondent fatigue, and data that’s much easier to understand in context.
Manual survey building often means:
Hours spent drafting questions and logic
Pre-set choices that miss patient experiences
Little engagement, flat numbers, and incomplete answers
AI survey generation (like what you get with Specific’s survey builder) is different:
Suggests expert-quality questions instantly
Adapts to your specific patients or goals, even mid-conversation
Feeds real-time follow-ups for true context
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys |
|---|---|
Slow to build, lots of editing | Instant prompts—done in seconds |
One-size-fits-all questions | Customized, context-aware prompts |
No real-time probing for details | Automated, conversational follow-ups |
Limited, static feedback | Dynamic, nuanced insights |
Why use AI for patient surveys? The right AI-powered survey lets you focus on what matters—hearing patient voices, finding actionable insights, and iterating rapidly. For patient feedback about after-hours access, an AI survey example with smart follow-ups (like those generated by Specific) provides a far better experience for both sides.
If you’re new to this, check out our guide on how to create a patient survey about after-hours care in just a few clicks.
With Specific you get a best-in-class user experience for creating and completing conversational surveys, so the feedback is smooth, actionable, and authentic—whether you’re the researcher or the patient.
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