The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) is struggling to gather patient feedback as response rates to hospital service satisfaction surveys drop from 6% to 5% over the past year.
The organisation is considering new measures to boost response rates, with plans to implement text message notifications alongside email surveys to make participation easier for patients.
Patient satisfaction surveys will soon become part of quality criteria for Accident and Emergency departments, making the need for increased participation more urgent, officials said.
HIO board chairman Stavros Michael told philenews that improving healthcare quality is the organisation’s main goal for 2025. “To achieve this, we need cooperation from our beneficiaries”, he said.
The organisation will soon release comprehensive quality criteria results for hospitals, which are linked to their reimbursement rates.
Michael expressed concern about the low response rate, noting that only 5% of inpatients complete the electronic feedback surveys.
In the coming days, HIO will conduct inspections of all system hospitals to verify safety and quality indicators, including mortality rates, post-surgical complications, and hospital-acquired infections.
The inspections will cross-reference patient records with data submitted by hospitals for reimbursement purposes.
