Create your survey

Create your survey

Create your survey

How to create patient survey about communication with doctors

Adam Sabla - Image Avatar

Adam Sabla

·

Aug 20, 2025

Create your survey

This article will guide you on how to create a patient survey about communication with doctors. With Specific, you can generate a tailored survey in seconds, using the power of AI.

Steps to create a survey for patients about communication with doctors

If you want to save time, just click this link to generate a survey with Specific. Making patient surveys has never been easier, thanks to the AI survey generator at Specific and its advanced approach to building semantic surveys.

  1. Tell what survey you want.

  2. Done.

You don’t even need to read further if speed is all you care about. The AI survey maker will create your survey enriched with expert-level questions and knowledge. It even automatically asks follow-up questions so you collect deeper, richer insights with zero manual effort.

Why a patient survey about communication with doctors matters

Collecting feedback on how patients experience doctor communication drives real results. Let’s not sugarcoat it—we see missed opportunities every time this feedback loop is skipped:

  • Patients whose doctors communicate well are 60–90% more likely to stick with treatments, improving retention dramatically. Surveys unlock these insights. [1]

  • When patients feel misunderstood, there’s a tangible impact: 19% more likely to not follow treatment plans if physician-patient communication scores are poor. [2]

  • Ignoring these issues can even be dangerous—80% of serious medical errors are rooted in miscommunication during handovers. [3]

If you’re not running these surveys, you’re missing out on essential feedback for improving care, reducing risk, and supporting treatment adherence. The importance of a patient recognition survey goes beyond satisfaction scores; it’s directly tied to safety and outcomes.

Benefits of patient feedback go further: these surveys reveal blind spots in both provider behavior and administrative processes. Ultimately, they help medical teams understand what’s working—and what’s not—from the patient’s point of view.

What makes a good survey on communication with doctors

The best surveys about patient communication with doctors are clear, unbiased, and crafted in a conversational tone. You want respondents to feel comfortable sharing honest answers. Semantic keywords like “doctor-patient interaction,” “patient feedback,” and “conversational survey” should be woven in naturally to help achieve this.

Let’s look at some basics to keep top-of-mind:

  • Questions should be straightforward and avoid medical jargon or bias.

  • Use a conversational style to encourage more natural, open responses.

  • Measure your survey by both the quantity and quality of responses: you want a high completion rate and deep, actionable insights.

Bad Practices

Good Practices

Vague, leading, or double-barreled questions
No space for feedback
Sterile, formal language

Simple, focused questions
Encourage open answers
Tone feels like a real conversation

When you combine easy language with a conversational approach, you get richer feedback. Specific’s AI survey editor lets you fine-tune both question wording and tone so responses flow naturally.

Types of questions for a patient survey about communication with doctors

Survey design should mix question types for depth and structure. Here’s how I think about it for a patient survey about communication with doctors:

Open-ended questions are fantastic when you want to let patients speak in their own words and uncover insights you might never have considered. Use these when exploring experiences or challenges. For example:

  • Can you describe a recent experience where you felt clearly understood by your doctor?

  • What could have improved your conversation with your provider?

Single-select multiple-choice questions are great for structured feedback—perfect for getting a pulse on common experiences. Use these when you want to analyze trends or segment feedback at scale. For example:

How satisfied are you with how clearly your doctor explains your medical condition?

  • Very satisfied

  • Satisfied

  • Neutral

  • Dissatisfied

NPS (Net Promoter Score) question gives you a simple but powerful loyalty measure—very useful when tracking changes over time. If you want to set up an NPS survey fast, generate one here. Example:

How likely are you to recommend your doctor to a friend or family member? (0–10)

Followup questions to uncover "the why": Good surveys don’t stop at the first reply. Smart followups help clarify ambiguous statements or probe reasons behind a score. For example:

  • What made you feel that way about your doctor’s communication?

  • Can you give a specific example of when your doctor explained something clearly or not?

If you need more inspiration and tips to make your survey shine, check out our guide on the best questions for a patient survey about communication with doctors.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a real chat, not a static form. Instead of clicking through cold dropdowns, respondents interact as they would in text or messaging apps. This approach builds trust and delivers higher quality feedback—especially for complex topics like doctor-patient communication.

Let’s break it out with a simple comparison:

Manual Surveys

AI-Generated Surveys

Linear, rigid structure
Easy to skip
Low engagement

Conversational, adaptive
Automatic follow-ups
Personalized & relevant

Specific’s AI-driven survey generation is a leap forward compared to manual creation. You can build, edit, and launch surveys by simply describing what you want to know. The platform instantly produces expert-quality questions, complete with logic and contextual followups.

Why use AI for patient surveys? Because AI survey generators like Specific remove the friction. You get a more enjoyable survey-building experience, while patients feel genuinely heard. For a hands-on walkthrough, check out our article on how to create a survey and see why the conversational approach to patient feedback just works.

This “AI survey example” approach brings best-in-class user experience to the process—making the entire experience smooth and even enjoyable for both creators and respondents.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions make or break the quality of insights. Specific’s automatic AI follow-up questions feature is built to engage patients conversationally, just like a skilled researcher would. Here’s how it works: As soon as a patient gives an unclear or interesting answer, the AI asks smart, relevant follow-up questions in real time to uncover the full context.

Without good followups, survey responses can be noisy and leave you guessing what patients really meant. For example:

  • Patient: “Communication was okay, but a little rushed.”

  • AI follow-up: “Can you tell me more about what felt rushed? Was it the explanation or the time spent with you?”

How many followups to ask? In general, 2–3 targeted followups are enough to reach clarity, while giving people an option to skip or move forward keeps things friendly. Specific offers controls for this, so you get just the insights you need—without frustrating your patients.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a cold form, you get a two-way chat that uncovers what really matters to your audience. It’s the future of patient surveys about communication with doctors.

AI-powered survey analysis, qualitative insights, response themes: Worried about handling all those open-text replies? Don’t be. With tools like Specific’s AI survey response analysis, you can chat with your data, summarize results instantly, and get actionable insight no matter how much text you collect. See the detailed guide on how to analyze responses—it’s easier than ever to process even large, qualitative data sets.

We encourage you to try generating a survey now—nothing beats experiencing how these automated, conversational followups turn raw patient feedback into actionable insights.

See this communication with doctors survey example now

Start your patient survey today and get deeper, more actionable feedback—fast, friendly, and powered by conversational AI follow-ups. Create your own survey for insights that truly move the needle.

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Sources

  1. Emitrr. Patient surveys – Importance, types, questions & best practices.

  2. BMC Health Services Research. Non-adherence to medication and communication: A study on patient-physician interaction.

  3. Dialog Health. Healthcare communication statistics – Learn how to close the gaps in healthcare communication.

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.