Here are some of the best questions for a patient survey about patient portal usability, plus tips on how to write them. With Specific, you can quickly build a survey in seconds—no research expertise required.
Best open-ended questions for a patient survey about patient portal usability
Open-ended questions give patients the space to share authentic, detailed feedback. They’re perfect for understanding what really works—or doesn’t—especially in areas where every experience can be different. Responses to these questions help uncover new improvement ideas, user frustrations, and positive highlights. Patient engagement and candid feedback are critical—especially because 93% of patient portal users say their portal is easy to use, but there’s always room to dig deeper into the why and how. [1]
What was your first impression when you started using the patient portal?
Can you describe a time when the portal made managing your health easier (or harder)?
What features do you use most often, and why?
Have you ever had difficulty finding the information you needed in the portal? If yes, what happened?
How do you usually communicate with your healthcare provider using the portal?
Is there any feature or function you wish the portal offered?
What’s one thing about the portal that frustrates you?
Do you feel more in control of your healthcare since you started using the portal? Please share any examples.
How easy is it for you to access and understand your health records in the portal?
If you could change one thing about the portal, what would it be, and why?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for patient portal usability
Single-select multiple-choice questions help you quickly quantify patient satisfaction, pinpoint problem areas, or measure adoption of key features. They work especially well early in the survey, when giving respondents simple options can kickstart the process and reduce survey drop-off. Sometimes, it’s less overwhelming to pick an option than to write out a long answer—and you can always follow up for deeper insight.
Question: How often do you use the patient portal?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Rarely
Question: How would you rate the ease of finding your lab results in the portal?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Difficult
Haven’t tried
Question: What is your biggest reason for using the patient portal?
Quick access to medical records
Messaging healthcare providers
Appointment management
Other
When to follow up with “why?” When a respondent selects a choice—say “Difficult” for finding lab results—always ask why. It’s the bridge between numbers and stories. For example, ask, “Can you tell us what made it difficult to find your lab results?” That’s where the richest insights often surface.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always include “Other” when your list can’t possibly cover every patient's experience. It lets people share something you hadn’t thought to ask, and then you can use automated or manual follow-up questions to uncover unexpected insights.
NPS questions for patient portal usability
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question—“On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend the patient portal to a friend or family member?”—lets you track overall sentiment and benchmark improvements over time. It’s a gold standard in measuring loyalty and satisfaction. NPS works well for patient portal usability, because it quickly reveals how valuable and trustworthy your portal is from a patient’s perspective. If you want an instant survey with NPS logic pre-built, try NPS survey for patient portal usability.
The power of follow-up questions
Open-ended feedback is only as valuable as your follow-ups. If you’re curious about how this works, dive into how automated follow-up questions can transform your insight gathering. Specific’s AI-powered engine asks smart follow-ups—adapting in real time, in a way that feels like chatting with an expert moderator. This conversational feedback is gold for usability research: the AI clarifies patient intent, making sure nothing gets lost in translation. You get richer stories, effortlessly—without scheduling phone calls or chasing people down over email. This is all available out-of-the-box with automatic AI follow-up questions.
Patient: “I sometimes get confused by the appointment reminders.”
AI follow-up: “Can you describe what about the reminders confuses you? Was it the wording, the timing, or something else?”
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2–3 are enough to get complete context, but you can configure the AI to move to the next topic as soon as your information needs are met. Specific lets you set these preferences, so you always stay in control.
This makes it a conversational survey. Instead of a static form, every interaction is dynamic. Respondents feel heard, and your data is far richer for it.
AI survey response analysis: Thanks to advanced AI, analyzing open-ended feedback is effortless—even with a flood of unstructured responses. Learn more in our guide to analyzing survey responses using AI.
Automated follow-up questions are a game-changer for modern patient surveys. Try generating your own to see how much deeper you can go.
How to use ChatGPT prompts to write better patient portal usability questions
If you want to brainstorm on your own—or refine the questions above—start with a simple prompt for ChatGPT or any GPT-based tool. For example:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Patient survey about Patient Portal Usability.
AI always works better with more context. Tell it who you are, what your portal is like, and your research goal, and you’ll get sharper, more relevant questions:
I’m designing a survey to gather feedback from patients who use our regional healthcare portal to manage appointments, medications, and chat with providers. Our goal is to uncover usability barriers and discover what features patients value most. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for our patient survey about portal usability.
Once you have a draft list, ask the AI to organize them by focus area:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Pick the categories most relevant for your goals—for example, “communication features” or “health record access”—and have AI go deeper:
Generate 10 questions about user experiences with appointment scheduling and notifications.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey replicates a natural dialogue between patient and researcher. The AI adapts based on each answer, probing just enough to get clarity—never too rigid, never scattershot. This approach feels familiar (almost like messaging with a friend), helps patients open up, and leads to higher-quality data overall.
Comparing old-school manual tools to an AI survey generator highlights the difference:
Manual Survey Creation | AI Survey Generation |
|---|---|
Hours to write questions | Survey created in minutes |
Static, one-size-fits-all forms | Conversational, adaptive to each respondent |
Manual data cleanup | AI summarizes and analyzes responses |
Tedious to iterate | Edit by chatting with AI (AI survey editor) |
Why use AI for patient surveys? AI survey generators, like Specific, take the pain out of creating, managing, and analyzing your survey—making it easy to adapt as you learn what matters most to your patients. Plus, Specific’s unique conversational engine fosters an engaging survey experience and helps you unlock insights that are often missed with traditional methods.
Want a step-by-step guide to making engaging patient surveys? Check out how to create a conversational survey for patient portal usability.
You get the best-in-class experience for both creators and respondents, whether you’re working from scratch (AI survey generator) or using ready-made templates.
See this patient portal usability survey example now
Experience a conversational, AI-driven survey designed for real patient insights in minutes—collect better data, ask smarter follow-ups automatically, and turn every patient’s feedback into actionable improvements. See how you can use AI to spark better conversations and results today.