Survey your doctors and other healthcare professionals

Survey your physicians and allied healthcare providers to learn more about their perceptions of the practice. Like the one for staff, the physician survey allows physicians to think about and reflect on any barriers that prevent the practice from providing better service. Furthermore, it serves the dual purpose of emphasizing the importance of the five-star service concept and putting some of their concerns out in the open so they can be addressed. Note that you can use the same survey for physicians as you use for surveying patients/staff. Conducting a confidential survey will yield the best results.

Physician surveys reveal a variety of issues, but some of the most common include the following:

• Scheduling issues
• Technology problems
• Concerns about staff members and staffing in general
• Length of waiting room times
• Lack of staff competency assessments

Although not all of these problems have quick fixes, it's important to keep a list of issues to address as you move forward.