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Best questions for patient survey about interpreter services access

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Adam Sabla

·

Aug 21, 2025

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Here are some of the best questions for a patient survey about interpreter services access, plus smart tips for crafting your own. We’ve helped hundreds build patient feedback surveys like this—use Specific to generate your own in seconds, tailored by AI for real insights.

Best open-ended questions for patient survey about interpreter services access

Open-ended questions are invaluable for patient surveys on interpreter services access. They prompt deeper reflection and authentic stories, capturing nuanced patient experiences—especially helpful when language and trust are concerns. These questions give patients room to share their struggles and moments of satisfaction, which structured questions might miss. This is vital because language barriers can drastically lower patient satisfaction and quality of care when interpreter support is lacking [1].

  1. Can you describe a recent experience where you needed an interpreter during your healthcare visit?

  2. How did the presence or absence of an interpreter affect your understanding of your diagnosis or treatment?

  3. What challenges did you face, if any, when accessing interpreter services at our facility?

  4. What was helpful or unhelpful about the interpreter services provided to you?

  5. How comfortable did you feel communicating with your healthcare provider using interpreter services?

  6. What improvements would you suggest for our interpreter services?

  7. Were there any moments when you felt misunderstood due to language barriers? Please explain.

  8. How did using an interpreter influence your engagement and involvement in care decisions?

  9. What difference did the mode of interpretation (in-person, phone, or video) make for your care experience?

  10. What was your biggest concern when using or requesting an interpreter for your appointment?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for patient survey about interpreter services access

Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you need structured data, want to spot trends, or make it easier for respondents to participate quickly—especially if someone feels overwhelmed by open text. These can start conversations that you dig into further with follow-ups.

Question: Did you use interpreter services during your most recent visit?

  • Yes

  • No

  • I did not know services were available

  • Other

Question: How satisfied were you with the interpreter services provided?

  • Very satisfied

  • Somewhat satisfied

  • Neutral

  • Somewhat dissatisfied

  • Very dissatisfied

Question: Which type of interpreter service did you use?

  • In-person

  • Phone

  • Video

  • I don’t know

  • Other

When to follow up with "why?" Many times, a single choice only tells you part of the story. If a patient selects "Somewhat dissatisfied" or "Other," always follow up with "Why?" This reveals what’s truly behind their answer. For example, if a patient indicates dissatisfaction, asking “Why did you feel dissatisfied with the interpreter services?” often surfaces specific issues you can address.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add “Other” when there’s a chance responses fall outside your expected categories. This opens the door for patients to share perspectives you may not have thought of—and a follow-up can uncover key insights that drive genuine improvement.

NPS questions for interpreter services access: when to use them

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a reliable, research-backed metric to gauge overall satisfaction and loyalty—here, for interpreter services. By asking “How likely are you to recommend our interpreter services to others?”, you capture a clear, benchmarkable view of patient satisfaction while allowing rich follow-up insight from detractors and promoters alike. Given that professional interpreters are directly linked to better care and satisfaction [2], NPS fits well in these surveys and lets you compare performance over time or with peers.

Launching an NPS survey takes seconds with Specific—you can start with an NPS template about interpreter services here.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions unlock richer understanding from patient surveys—they transform checkboxes and vague answers into actionable, contextual insights. Tools like Specific’s automated follow-up question feature use AI to instantly ask smart, relevant clarifications based on real-time responses. Imagine a patient answers, “I didn’t understand all of the instructions.” An AI follow-up like, “Which instructions were unclear or missing?” brings clarity that static surveys miss.

  • Patient: I used the phone interpreter but it was frustrating.

  • AI follow-up: Could you share what made the phone interpreter frustrating for you?

How many follow-ups to ask? Stick to 2–3 well-chosen follow-ups for each topic to keep the experience feeling conversational, without overwhelming the respondent. Enable a “move on” setting as soon as the desired information is gathered—Specific supports this level of control out of the box.

This makes it a conversational survey: Each interaction feels like a natural conversation, not an interrogation—patients are more open and complete in their answers.

AI-powered analysis and easy insights: Don’t worry about wading through mountains of unstructured text. Thanks to advanced AI survey response analysis, it’s simple to summarize, segment, and chat about your results—even for teams new to qualitative research.

Automated followups are a relatively new concept—try it in your next AI survey to really experience the difference it makes in context and clarity.

How to prompt ChatGPT to generate questions for interpreter services surveys

If you want to use ChatGPT or another GPT tool to help you come up with survey questions, try these prompt recipes. Start simple, then refine as you go.

Start with a broad prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for patient survey about interpreter services access.

You’ll get better output if you add more context—for example, describe your setting, goals, or the problems you’re addressing:

We serve a diverse patient population, many with limited English proficiency. We want to understand how effectively patients can access and use our interpreter services. Suggest 10 open-ended survey questions that let us learn about patients’ barriers, concerns, and positive experiences regarding interpreter support.

Once you see the questions, ask ChatGPT to sort them into logical groups:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Identify the categories most relevant to your work and dig deeper with a follow-up prompt:

Generate 10 questions for the categories "access challenges" and "quality of interpretation."

What is a conversational survey, and why does it matter?

A conversational survey is designed to mirror a chat-like experience—questions flow naturally, respondents feel heard, and the AI agent can clarify or dig deeper in real time. This design is a leap forward from clunky, traditional forms.

Manual surveys

AI-generated surveys (conversational)

Static, one-size-fits-all

Adaptive and responsive—questions change based on replies

Often ignored or rushed through

Feels like a chat, so respondents engage naturally

Follow-up is manual and tedious

Built-in, real-time follow-ups—no extra work

Difficult to analyze open-text

AI summarizes and distills main themes instantly

Why use AI for patient surveys? With an AI survey generator, like Specific, you can build comprehensive surveys with expert-level follow-up logic, localize questions for multi-language audiences, automatically analyze results, and adapt your survey as new themes emerge. This is especially valuable where language access impacts the quality of care, as surveys must be both sensitive and thorough. Using AI survey best practices makes the whole feedback process smoother, more inclusive, and more actionable for patient and provider alike.

Specific’s conversational survey engine delivers a best-in-class user experience—patients are more likely to complete the survey, and you’re more likely to get responses you can use.

See this interpreter services access survey example now

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Sources

  1. PubMed. Language Barriers to Health Care in the United States

  2. LingArch. Improving Patient Outcomes: The Importance of Interpretation Services

  3. PubMed. Comparing Modalities of Interpreter Services on Patient Satisfaction

  4. PubMed. Interpreter Services and In-Hospital Mortality

Adam Sabla - Image Avatar

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.