OPD and IPD question outlines, collection methods and the review loop
This guide helps quality teams in Indian hospitals build a NABH patient satisfaction survey questionnaire for outpatients and inpatients. NABH expects a working mechanism to capture patient feedback and act on it, but it does not publish an official questionnaire. You will find module outlines, question wording tips, collection options and a monthly review routine you can adapt.
- NABH asks for a mechanism, not a fixed form
- Separate OPD and IPD outlines
- Satisfaction and experience are different questions
- Analysis and corrective action matter most
- Comes regularly
- Comes sometimes
- Rarely / never
- Don't know
No. NABH hospital accreditation standards require a mechanism to capture patient feedback, including satisfaction and experience, and to review it and act on it within a defined time. They do not publish a mandatory questionnaire, so each hospital designs its own tools and shows assessors how feedback leads to improvement.
In the 5th edition of the hospital standards, this sits in the Patient Rights and Education chapter under PRE.7. Its objective elements cover capturing feedback that includes satisfaction, capturing patient experience, redressing complaints, telling patients and families how to give feedback, reviewing it within a defined time frame and taking corrective or preventive action. The 6th edition has applied to new applications since January 2025; check the current edition's wording and numbering with your quality manager before an assessment.
Templates sold online as "the NABH questionnaire" are one hospital's or one consultant's design. They can be a starting point, but no form by itself earns accreditation, and this guide cannot promise that any questionnaire will satisfy an assessor.
What assessors typically look for
- A documented feedback procedure
- Patients told how to give feedback
- Records of feedback collected
- Periodic analysis with trends
- Actions taken and followed up
- Complaint redressal records
Ask both, in different ways. Satisfaction questions record how patients rate care; experience questions record what actually happened, such as whether a nurse explained a medicine. Experience items point more directly to what a department should change.
How did you rate it?
Opinion on a scale
- Overall rating of the hospital stay
- Rating of doctors, nurses, cleanliness
- Likelihood to recommend
- Easy to trend month by month
- Influenced by expectations
What happened?
Reports of specific events
- Were you told the purpose of new medicines?
- Did staff respond when you called?
- Was waiting time explained?
- Points to a specific process
- Less affected by expectations
Keep OPD forms to about ten questions so patients finish them before leaving. IPD discharge forms can be longer because they cover admission to billing. Use the same rating scale across both.
Visit details and consent
Department, OPD or ward, date, whether the respondent is the patient or an attendant, and a consent line. Offer an anonymous option.
- No clinical details needed
- Patient or attendant
- Language chosen by respondent
Registration, appointment and waiting
Ease of registration, waiting time before consultation and whether delays were explained. For IPD, add admission process time.
- Waiting time in bands
- Delay explained: yes or no
- Help desk courtesy
Doctors
Whether the doctor listened, explained the condition and treatment in words the patient understood, and gave time for questions.
- Explained diagnosis
- Explained treatment options
- Time for questions
Nursing and ward care
For IPD: response to calls, explanation of medicines, pain management, privacy and respect during care.
- Response when called
- Medicine purpose explained
- Privacy maintained
Diagnostics, pharmacy and billing
Waiting at lab and radiology, medicine availability, clarity of the bill and of any estimate given before admission.
- Estimate versus final bill explained
- Medicines available
- Reports on time
Cleanliness, food and facilities
Toilets, wards, drinking water, food quality for inpatients and signage for finding departments.
- Toilet cleanliness
- Drinking water
- Signage
Discharge and overall
Whether discharge instructions were explained, overall rating, likelihood to recommend and one open question on what to improve.
- Discharge advice explained
- Overall rating
- One open comment
Write short questions in the languages your patients speak, about one aspect of care each, with a labelled scale and a "not applicable" option. Ask about recent, specific moments rather than general impressions, and keep clinical judgement questions out of a satisfaction form.
Wording rules for hospital forms
Test every question with a few patients and attendants before you print or publish it.
- One aspect per question: split "doctors and nurses were polite".
- Label every scale point, for example Very poor to Very good.
- Add "not applicable" so OPD patients can skip ward questions.
- Translate into the main local languages and read aloud to check.
- Put the open comment last, after ratings.
Avoid bias in collection
Patients rate more kindly when the staff member they are rating hands them the form or stands nearby. Let a neutral person, a kiosk or a QR code collect feedback, and collect IPD feedback at discharge before billing disputes colour every answer. Include attendants for children and very ill patients, and record who answered.
Our view on patient feedback
Most hospitals combine methods. Choose by who your patients are, how many you see and how quickly you need the data.
| Method | Works well for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Paper form in OPD | Low cost, familiar to patients | Manual entry, lost forms, slow analysis |
| QR code on a phone | Literate patients with smartphones | Low response from elderly and rural patients |
| Kiosk or tablet at exit | High volume OPD, instant data | Needs placement away from staff, device care |
| Staff-assisted tablet at discharge | IPD, low-literacy patients, all languages | Collector must not be the care team |
| Phone call after discharge | Experience after going home | Needs consent and a calling team |
Whichever you use, record the method so you can compare like with like over time.
Feedback only counts when it changes something. A simple monthly routine gives the quality committee trends, owners and evidence of action.
Collect and clean
Trend the scores
Code the comments
Assign and follow up
Not the right fit if
- Guaranteeing NABH accreditation or a good assessment
- Replacing a complaint redressal procedure
- Measuring clinical outcomes or quality of treatment
- Standing in for the current NABH standard text
A good fit if
- Showing a working feedback mechanism
- Finding department-level problems early
- Evidence of corrective action over time
- Hearing from attendants as well as patients
NABH patient feedback app
Collect OPD and IPD feedback offline, with department dashboards.
Learn moreHow to design a survey questionnaire
General wording and pilot testing rules.
Learn moreCAPI, CATI and CAWI explained
Choosing between tablet, phone and online feedback.
Learn moreNGO and health solutions
Field data collection for health programmes.
Learn moreSurvey cost in India
What drives the budget for a feedback programme.
Learn moreStraight answers to the questions people ask most about this topic.
Is there an official NABH patient feedback form?
NABH does not publish a mandatory patient satisfaction form. Its hospital standards ask for a mechanism to capture feedback, including satisfaction and experience, with review and corrective action. Hospitals design their own forms and procedures. Treat any downloadable "NABH form" as a sample, not an official document.
How often should a hospital analyse patient feedback?
The standards ask for review within a time frame the hospital defines. Many quality teams review monthly and present trends to the quality committee, with urgent complaints handled as they arrive. Choose a frequency you can sustain, write it in your procedure and keep the records.
Should attendants fill in the feedback form?
Yes, when the patient is a child, very ill, or unable to respond. Record whether the patient or an attendant answered, because attendants often focus on facilities, food and billing while patients comment more on pain and communication. Analyse the two groups separately when numbers allow.
How many patients should we survey?
Aim for a steady sample from every department rather than a large one-off drive. Small departments may need all discharges surveyed to get usable monthly numbers. Report the number of responses with every score so the committee does not over-read a change based on a handful of forms.
Can feedback be collected digitally for NABH?
Nothing in the requirement ties feedback to paper. Tablets, kiosks, QR codes and phone calls all work if patients can use them and records are kept. Digital collection makes monthly trends faster; keep a staff-assisted option for patients who cannot use a phone.
Tell us your OPD volume, wards and languages. We will show how the feedback app captures, trends and routes patient comments to owners.