Improving Patient Survey Response Rates to Urogynecologic Web-Based Questionnaires

Objectives: Web-based initial questionnaires are widely used in several areas of medicine to facilitate the accurate intake and symptom asessement of new patients. In our urogynecology clinic, the questionnaire includes validated outcome measures, which serve as an important tool for providing meaningful clinical care. When completed ahead of the patient’s initial visit, this can further improve patient care by increasing the efficiency of the clinic. Incomplete questionnaires lead to delays in patient care and longer waiting times at the office visit, which contribute to staff and patient dissatisfaction. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate interventions to improve the patient survey response rate to web-based new patient questionnaires.

Methods: Web-based questionnaires are only available to patients enrolled in the online patient portal. For the study of this intervention, only the new patients who were enrolled in the online patient portal were included. We developed two intervention cycles: (1) Implementation of a universal auto-text that delivered a link to the questionnaire and (2) Implementation of an informative phone script. The first intervention cycle was implemented for 4 weeks, followed by the second. The primary outcome of this study was the percentage of completed questionnaires before and after the implementation of the change cycles.

Results: New patient encounters were reviewed over the course of 23 weeks from August 2022 to February 2023. A baseline weekly survey response rate of 50% was established from the first 15 weeks prior to intervention. Weekly survey response rates following the intervention cycles were analyzed over the 9 weeks. After the implementation of the interventions, a statistical control chart demonstrated that there was a significantly higher survey response rate following intervention compared to that at baseline (Figure 1).

Conclusions: A systematic approach to the notification and delivery of digital questionnaires is important for optimal survey response completion rates. This pilot study suggests that barriers to digital survey completion may improve with work-flow modifications.