Frequently Asked Questions
Why Should I Regularly Survey My Patients?
How Much Does iSurveyDog Cost?
Why Should I Use iSurveyDog Instead of Making My Own Survey?
Which Patients Are Surveyed?
How Frequently Are Patients Surveyed?
What Are the Requirements for Using iSurveyDog?
Is iSurveyDog HIPAA Compliant?
What Happens to Surveys Sent to Undeliverable Addresses?
What Does the Survey Look Like?
Why Not Use An Electronic Patient Survey?
How Quickly Are Survey Responses Viewable?
How Are Patients Assured the Survey is Confidential?
Why Should I Regularly Survey My Patients?
In our consumer-driven economy, patient satisfaction increasingly drives the success
of healthcare practices. Although patients still ask their friends or family for health provider
recommendations, patients are increasingly turning to online rating websites where
providers are evaluated alongside restaurants, hotels, plumbers, and roofers. Despite flaws of
this anonymous, no-holds-barred approach, the sheer volume of the consumer-generated content is
changing what patients think of you and whether they’ll seek your services. By using iSurveyDog, you
are taking a proactive approach in maximizing patient satisfaction by measuring critical operations in
your practice. With unclouded knowledge about the strengths and weakness of your practice, you can
direct efforts for positive changes, providing your patients with a high level of consistent service.
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How Much Does iSurveyDog Cost?
There are no upfront costs to get started with iSurveyDog. Your practice is charged $4.65 for each survey sent out. This fee includes color printing, mail-handling, postage, data entry, and access to reports and analysis. According to a 2007 industry analysis by Practice Advancement Associates, the median 20% of optometric practices generated an average revenue of $304 per patient. With this in mind, iSurveyDog is only 1.5% of that per-patient revenue. Most practices implementing iSurveyDog can expect a tangible return-on-investment justifying this service.
Note that practices involved in beta testing receive reduced pricing for the
duration of their assistance.
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Why Should I Use iSurveyDog Instead of Making My Own Survey?
By using iSurveyDog, you are saving time and money by using a time-tested survey
system specifically for eye care practices. Our surveys are designed to minimize sampling bias and
response burden with each item structured for validity and reliability. A key feature
of the iSurveyDog intellectual property is the ability to track how your practice performs over time
and compare certain results against collective data from other practices. Finally, the volume of survey
processing at iSurveyDog provides economies of scale in mail services and data entry which an
individual could not likely duplicate.
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iSurveyDog can survey any of your patients if you provide their
corresponding data in electronic form (e.g. full name, U.S. mailing address, last exam date, doctor
seen). Most practice management software allows you to create a list of patients selected
according to criteria like age, sex, type of exam, etc. Many practices will find it cost-effective surveying
patients that are new to their office that have undergone a routine examination. Although the opinion of all
your patients is important, the feedback of new patients is especially telling since their perceptions are
not influenced by previous interactions with your practice.
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How Frequently Are Patients Surveyed?
iSurveyDog recommends surveying monthly. For most practices, surveying more frequently (e.g. weekly)
does not provide enough responses to guide operational decisions and does not allow enough time to complete transactions
(e.g. dispensing eyeglasses and contact lenses) while increasing your burden in uploading patient data. Conversely,
surveying less frequently (e.g. each quarter or each year) provides useful data, however the relatively long time
interval between surveying can delay crucial feedback that could make or break your practice, and can also make it harder
for patients to remember if the survey is administered long after the service was rendered. In today’s speed of business,
mobility of your practice in adapting to a changing environment separates you from the competition, and monthly surveying
seems to be the right time interval for most practices.
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What Are the Requirements for Using iSurveyDog?
The predominant requirements are as follows:
- Your office must use a practice management system, such as OfficeMate, MaximEyes, Compulink, or EyeCom2. These electronic systems provide the patient information necessary for secure upload onto iSurveyDog.com.
- Send out a minimum of 25 surveys per mailing. Sending out fewer than 25 surveys per mailing limits your ability to receive a sufficient response. If you do not meet the minimum quota in a given month, your account will still be billed the cost of sending out 25 surveys.
- A portrait of each doctor in the office, in digital form (JPG or GIF), for inclusion on the survey. The portraits increase the response rate of the survey by personalizing the mailing. Your office logo, in digital form (JPG or GIF) is also recommended, but not necessary.
- A valid credit card, which will be billed after each mailing goes out.
Is iSurveyDog HIPAA Compliant?
Yes. In creating an account with iSurveyDog, you are required to agree to our Business Associate Agreement
which complies with HIPAA regulations. Aside from password protection, iSurveyDog owns an SSL certificate,
assuring you that your sensitive practice and patient data is kept safe with the industry-standard
128-bit encryption (used by all banking infrastructures to safeguard sensitive data) and up to
256-bit encryption if your web browser supports it. On iSurveyDog webpages where sensitive data
is entered or accessed, you will notice a padlock icon and “https” prefix in the address bar of your
web browser.
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What Happens to Surveys Sent to Undeliverable Addresses?
Our surveys are sent out using first-class mail through the US Postal Service,
which includes forwarding and return services. Consequently, undeliverable surveys are returned
to your practice so that your patient records can be updated.
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What Does the Survey Look Like?
The survey is professionally presented to appropriately reflect your practice. The survey is mailed in a business #10 window envelope using first-class mail, showing your practice logo in color (if provided) with return address in the upper left.
The survey itself is printed on
legal sized paper in full color, front and back. Included is a business #9 addressed envelope with
pre-paid postage for returning the completed survey.
Why Not Use An Electronic Patient Survey?
Electronic surveys, whether through e-mail or an interactive webpage, are inexpensive and can offer a quick turn-around on responses. However at present, with variable adoption of electronic communication in the average patient population, electronic surveys can introduce sampling bias, especially in patient bases with an older and rural demographic. Additionally, the response profile with electronic surveys differs from that of mailed surveys. In other words, respondents of an electronic survey have different characteristics compared to respondents of a mail-based survey. Relying on an electronic patient survey at this time could lead you to make unnecessary and inappropriate operational changes. For this reason, all the major healthcare survey companies administer mail-based surveys. Mailed surveys are the gold standard. Second, most electronic-based surveys require capture of e-mail addresses. Although eye care practices should consistently collect patient mailing addresses, most have not made as much progress in consistently collecting e-mail addresses, thereby limiting the potential market for electronic patient surveying. Third, not all electronic surveys are HIPAA compliant nor specifically designed to service eye care with appropriate questions and benchmark data.
When online participation by patients becomes universal, you can expect electronic surveying to
supplant postal-based surveying. iSurveyDog will also offer electronic surveys well before that time.
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How Quickly Are Survey Responses Viewable?
In most cases, survey responses are viewable beginning 10 business days after your
patient data is uploaded onto iSurveyDog.com. Keep in mind there is a turnaround time for printing,
mailing, patients returning their surveys, and data entry of the patient responses. Although some
patients take longer than others to return their survey, you can expect the majority of your survey
responses to come in within one month of uploading your patient data.
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How Are Patients Assured the Survey is Confidential?
Since the completed surveys are returned to our own survey processor, the patient
responses that you view are not linked to any individual patient’s identifying information. Patients
that receive surveys can freely share feedback, knowing that their responses are confidential.
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