This article will guide you on how to create a patient survey about bedside manner. If you want to quickly gather actionable feedback, you can build such a survey in seconds with Specific.
Steps to create a survey for patients about bedside manner
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific.
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You really don’t need to read further, unless you want extra insight. AI will create your survey with expert-level knowledge—no forms, no guesswork. It will even ask respondents follow-up questions in real time to gather deeper insights with ease.
Why patient surveys on bedside manner matter
Let’s get real: bedside manner is one of the top reasons patients remember a healthcare provider—either fondly or not at all. If you’re not running surveys to understand and improve this, you’re missing out on critical feedback that drives patient loyalty and trust.
Effective communication enhances satisfaction and outcomes: Research has shown that when healthcare teams implement bedside shift reports, patient satisfaction scores related to nursing communication can jump from 75% to 87.6% in just three months. That’s a game changer for your HCAHPS scores and reputation. [1]
Feedback reveals pain points and highlights wins: Without routine patient feedback, you’ll likely miss recurring issues or untapped strengths within your team’s bedside manner.
Closing the loop improves care: Asking patients to weigh in creates a more open, patient-centered culture. It ensures patients feel listened to—and that you have hard data to improve both patient experience and clinical outcomes.
The importance of patient recognition surveys and the benefits of patient feedback are crystal clear. It’s not just about boosting metrics; it’s about building genuine, two-way trust in care delivery.
What makes a good survey on bedside manner
Building an effective bedside manner survey starts with asking the right questions. That means:
Clear, unbiased questions—avoid medical jargon and leading language
Conversational tone—so patients feel safe to answer honestly and openly
Straightforward layout with logical flow
Space for context and emotion
Bad practices | Good practices |
|---|---|
Confusing, technical language | Everyday wording; plain English |
Long, overwhelming surveys | Concise, focused questions |
Only closed questions, no context | Mix of open-ended and structured |
The real measure of survey quality is the quantity and quality of responses. You want both to be high—clear questions and an easy, comfortable format are key to unlocking authentic patient stories and insights.
Question types for a patient survey about bedside manner (with examples)
The best surveys mix question types to balance structured feedback and rich patient stories. If you want to dive deeper into what to ask or get more question ideas, check out this guide on best questions for a patient survey about bedside manner.
Open-ended questions give patients the space to share their unique experiences and reveal root causes or praise, in their own words. Use these early in your survey or after a multiple-choice for richer insight. For example:
What did your doctor or nurse do that made you feel most comfortable during your visit?
How could our staff improve their bedside manner in your opinion?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are best for quick benchmarking or to focus feedback. For example:
How would you rate your provider’s listening skills during your most recent appointment?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question lets you measure patient loyalty in one number, with followup “why?” probing. Learn how to generate a NPS survey designed for patients about bedside manner here:
On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend your healthcare provider's bedside manner to your friends or family?
Followup questions to uncover "the why" are where the magic happens. Use them when an answer is unclear, conflicting, or too brief—this digs up the underlying “why” that can shape real change. For example:
Can you describe a specific interaction that led to your rating?
What could your provider have done differently?
Automated followups personalize each survey in real time. To explore more question options and get actionable tips, check out the best questions for patient bedside manner surveys guide.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey feels like a natural chat instead of a static form. Patients interact in a back-and-forth, answering easy questions and followups that flow like a real conversation. This leads to more detail and emotion—vital for understanding bedside manner in-depth.
Traditional manual survey creation often means long forms, repetitive questions, and low response rates. By contrast, using an AI survey generator like Specific brings transformative advantages:
Manual survey | AI-generated survey |
|---|---|
Slow, repetitive setup | Built in seconds, expert-designed |
No follow-up context | Dynamic, real-time probing |
Flat forms, less engagement | Chat-like, mobile-friendly conversations |
Difficult analysis | AI-powered insights & summaries |
Why use AI for patient surveys? Because it guarantees speed, expert-level question design, and the kind of empathetic followup that would take hours to manage manually. If you want a proven AI survey example to see this in action, look no further—Specific’s conversational surveys set the standard for seamless patient feedback. The end result: a smoother experience for respondents, and richer insights for you. If you want to learn how to create a survey in this style, see our how-to guide on survey creation.
Specific offers the best user experience for conversational surveys, making it effortless for both patients and healthcare teams to capture, understand, and act on feedback.
The power of follow-up questions
If you want truly actionable insights, follow-up questions are your best friend—they help clarify unclear responses and get to the heart of patient feedback. With Specific’s automated AI followup questions feature, our surveys ask smart, in-the-moment probing questions just like a healthcare feedback expert would. Instead of exchanging emails to clarify a vague answer, the AI handles it instantly.
Patient: “The bedside manner was okay.”
AI follow-up: “Could you share a specific example of what made it just okay?”
How many followups to ask? In our experience, two or three well-timed followups are enough to get clear context, while letting patients move forward when they’ve provided the needed detail. You can easily customize this in Specific’s settings.
This makes it a conversational survey—more like a genuine chat, less like an interrogation. That’s exactly what you want for understanding feelings on bedside manner.
AI-powered analysis, qualitative responses, feedback themes: Even if you gather hundreds of open-ended and followup answers, you can easily analyze responses with AI (learn how here). This turns all that unstructured text into actionable insights—fast.
Automated followup questions are a major evolution in patient surveys. If you haven’t tried them, generate a survey and see how the conversation unfolds in a natural, insightful way.
See this bedside manner survey example now
Experience how fast, insightful, and effortless patient surveys can be with conversational AI and followup questions. Unlock richer feedback and start making improvements in how bedside manner is experienced—right from the first response.