» Patient experience survey (PES)

Patient experience survey (PES)

Published: 04/06/2025 | 7 links | Website

The quarterly patient experience survey (PES) is the biggest national health survey in Aotearoa New Zealand and is a great way of getting feedback from patients.

Every patient over the age of 15 years who is seen during the PES week/s, and has a valid email address (and for some, a cell phone number) recorded in the PMS, will be invited to participate.

The survey goes via the National Enrolment Service, to the group of your patients who have been seen in practice during survey week/s. This is only a snapshot and it does only catch those patients who have an appointment at your practice but it gives you valuable information, particularly around the experiences of Māori patients in relation to non-Māori patients.

This survey will go out to a cohort of your patients every three months, further details are available on the timetable.

Highlights from the February 2025 survey results across the Pinnacle network

Key points from the February survey.

Bounce rates in the majority of regions were greater than national rates, but lower than those in the November 2024 survey. A high percentage of the bounces were due to patients email addresses being incorrect in the PMS.
There was a reduction in the response rate for Māori across all regions.
There were a combined total of 2,752 patients (608 Māori) across the Pinnacle network responding to the February survey. This is a slightly lower number of patients compared to the last quarter.
Questions related to pronunciation of names and cultural needs tended to be significantly lower for Māori than non-Māori across the network. Incorrect pronunciation of names can impact health outcomes and overall wellbeing for Māori. Individuals and practices need to remain aware of potential biases and use the valuable online learning resources through the Health Quality and Safety Commission: Learning and education modules on understanding bias in health care | Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission
The two lowest performing questions across the network were related to getting same day/next working day appointments and appointment wait times, suggesting there is a higher demand for acute appointments than what is available in general practice.
Another low performing question across the network was “There is one health professional the patient normally sees”, suggesting a shift in the general practice model of care, whereby the patient sees different healthcare professionals for different aspects of their care.

The patient experience survey can be used as evidence for Foundation Standards indicator 8.2 and supports the delivery of clinical governance within a practice.

Survey portals

The survey programme uses two portals to support the sector in preparing for the survey and looking at the results.

The landing page for the two portals can be found on the My Experience website. Ensure you bookmark this link in your practice management system and that your equity champion in your practice has access to this information. You will find all resources, including webinars on how to use the two portals, in the library section.

The Q&A guide and instructional video on how to navigate the reports in the portal are very useful tools.
If you have difficulty accessing these portals, ensure you are using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge as your browser.
Once you have set yourself up you can also set up other staff members to see the survey – particularly through the reporting portal.

During survey week

Remember to put your posters in a visible position and check you have email addresses recorded. Letting patients know they will get a survey and encouraging them to fill it in will help ensure participation.

The data portal is used as the surveys come in. It has the raw survey data in it and is used to ‘moderate’ any comments. More information on moderation can be found in the protocol for reviewing patient comments.

After survey week

The reporting portal, where results are published, is used once the survey is closed. Here you can see summary reports comparing your patient responses to national responses and broken down by ethnicity. If you want to moderate any identifiable comments from the survey, this is the time to do that. This is is also where if a patient wants you to contact them about their experience, you will see this.

Please take a few minutes to login to check for patient contact requests in the Red Alert tab of the data collection portal, to ensure these have all been actioned.

Suggested survey promotion

Practice poster

This poster (linked below) is for general practices to display in waiting rooms. It provides information about the primary care patient experience survey for patients.

Posters are available in English, Te Reo Māori, Samoan, Tongan, Hindi and Chinese.

Flyers for patients

Flyers (linked below) are available in a range of languages (English, te reo Māori, Samoan and Tongan) designed to promote the primary care patient experience survey in general practices.

Social media

The following is an example of a social media message practices may wish to share during survey week.

Over the next few weeks you may receive an email or text message inviting you to take part in a patient experience survey about your recent experience at [practice name].

By taking part in the survey, you would be helping to improve the care you and your whānau receive, as well as care and access to health services in local communities across New Zealand.

Taking part in the survey is voluntary and anonymous.

Please ensure the contact details we have for you are up to date. This can be done by contacting [practice name] reception.

Waiting room videos

General practices taking part in the patient experience survey can now show a video in their clinic waiting room that talks about what the survey is and encourages patients to participate. These have been created in English, with English, te reo Māori, Samoan and Tongan subtitles (linked below).

Tips for improving response rates

The following tips are provided by Aotearoa New Zealand patient experience survey.

Take a look at the IPSOS quarterly newsletter for some tips on how to boost your response rates.

Ensure both the email and mobile number is available and correct for all patients who interact with the practice over the survey period. Some patients will be contacted by text but the majority will receive an email.

Check the correct format of email addresses:
- no spaces
- one email address per patient
- ensure the email domain is correct.
Check the correct format of mobile numbers:
- no spaces
- only numbers in field
- one mobile number per patient.

Encourage patients to complete the survey. Patients are more likely to answer the survey if they know about it and are expecting to receive an invitation. Therefore, it is important to:

display information about the survey the survey period (display poster linked below)
post about the survey on your practice Facebook page if you have one (see example text above).