Patient Experience Survey

What is the Patient Experience Survey?

Improving the patient experience is central to improving quality in primary care.

In 2020, the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) Quality & Innovation Program and 14 teaching sites launched a joint Patient Experience Survey to develop a consistent approach to understanding what matters most to patients. Since then, the survey has expanded to additional DFCM teaching sites and evolved alongside primary care, with a growing focus on equity, access and emerging priorities.

The survey captures patients’ experiences of primary care and is conducted every six months in English, French and Simplified Chinese. Findings are used by participating teaching sites to inform local quality improvement and by the DFCM Quality & Innovation Program to identify, learn from and share opportunities for improvement across academic family medicine.

Latest Survey

Our most recent Patient Experience Survey collected feedback from 9,205 patients across 14 DFCM teaching sites.

The survey asks patients about key aspects of their primary care experience, including:

• Access to care – getting an appointment, contacting the clinic and timely access
• Care experience – communication, involvement in decisions and understanding of care
• Virtual care – experiences with virtual visits and different ways of accessing care
• Patient-centred care – whether care reflects patients’ needs, preferences and values
• Equity – understanding differences in experiences across patient populations

The survey includes a core set of questions that allows us to track patient experience over time, alongside questions that can evolve to reflect emerging priorities in primary care.

Explore the Patient Experience Data

The Patient Experience Data Dashboard provides participating DFCM teaching sites with an interactive way to explore survey findings and identify opportunities for improvement. Results can be viewed across key areas of patient experience and over time, supporting teams to understand their patients’ experiences and inform quality improvement.

Access the Patient Experience Data Dashboard

To request access to your site's Data Dashboard, please contact pes.dfcm@utoronto.ca 

About the Survey

The DFCM Patient Experience Survey uses a common core set of questions across participating teaching sites. The core includes questions developed through DFCM consensus as well as validated measures, including the Person-Centred Primary Care Measure (PCPCM). Participating sites may also add questions to reflect local priorities.

The survey is administered every six months through a standardized process. Each site receives a customized survey containing the common core questions and distributes it electronically to eligible patients using email or secure messaging. Patients are invited to participate voluntarily, and responses are anonymous. The survey is available in English, French, and Simplified Chinese.

The sampling approach includes patients with a birthday in the previous six months who have the required digital contact information and consent, with each site defining its eligible patient population (for example, all patients or rostered patients). Core survey questions are reviewed and updated over time to reflect emerging priorities in primary care while maintaining consistency in key measures, allowing patient experience to be examined across sites and over time.

View the Patient Experience Survey 

Additional Resources

Watch a short video about the survey and the Person-Centered Primary Care Measure, a set of questions used to understand whether patients feel they are receiving high-quality care.

We welcome others modifying the survey for their use. If you would like to use or modify the survey, or if you have any questions, please email PES.DFCM@utoronto.ca.