Survey Insights Help Capture Why Referring Physicians Choose UCSF Radiology

Author:  Laurel Skurko, Marketing Director, UCSF Radiology and Biomedical Imaging

The UCSF Radiology marketing team is grateful to Bay Area referrers who have provided their feedback regarding customer service needs and communications preferences throughout the past four years. We use a variety of methods, with the bulk of feedback coming from an annual email survey. We have also conducted up to 100 in-person visits per year to gather data using one-on-one interviews and focus groups. 

We survey both current and potential referrers and include those who are part of UCSF as well as members of the broader Bay Area health community. The feedback we gather shapes many aspects of our organization. It leads to more precisely targeted communications and improved relationships with those who trust UCSF Radiology with their patients' health. 

Our surveys have generated strong response rates over time and this spring was no exception. We generated 432 responses (98 from UCSF and 334 outside UCSF). The overall response rate among those emails opened was 25 percent. We note that non-UCSF referrers exhibited a higher-than-average response rate, which is typically 10-15 percent. We attribute this to their interest in providing their feedback, as they may have fewer opportunities than their UCSF counterparts. The majority of respondents listed their primary function as a medical provider, including MD, DO, PA and NP titles. 

Overall, consistent with past years, referrers indicated high satisfaction with UCSF Radiology services, while specific areas of opportunity were addressed with follow-up in-service visits and/or other mechanisms. We are grateful for the continued theme of being recognized for our patient focus, quality and safety, the experience of our doctors and our forward-looking techniques.

Among communications preferences, again consistent with prior years, we learned that top digital sources of professional news are email (70 percent), internet (60 percent) and social media (17 percent). Among social media sites, top sources of professional news are LinkedIn (47 percent) and Doximity (34 percent).