Improving the Quality of Surveys of Physicians and Medical Groups A Research Agenda

• Published in: Evaluation & the health professions Vol. 35; no. 4; pp. 477 - 506
• Main Authors: Klabunde, Carrie N., Willis, Gordon B., McLeod, Caroline C., Dillman, Don A., Johnson, Timothy P., Greene, Sarah M., Brown, Martin L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-12-2012; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Clinical standards; Consensus Development Conferences as Topic; Doctors; Group Practice; Health administration; Health care; Health Care Surveys - instrumentation; Health Care Surveys - standards; Health services; Health technology assessment; Humans; Incentives; Medical personnel; Physicians; Physicians, Primary Care; Polls & surveys; Quality Improvement; Research Design; Studies; United States; Workshops; United States; medical groups; health; physicians; survey research; services research; health care provider
• ISSN: 0163-2787; 1552-3918
• DOI: 10.1177/0163278712458283

Because health care providers have a central role in implementing guidelines, health care reform, and new standards of care and technologies, surveying them about their practices and perspectives is vital for health services and policy research. In November 2010, the National Cancer Institute convened a workshop to review and discuss current methodologies in designing and fielding large-scale surveys of physicians and medical groups. This report summarizes key issues and future directions for four topic areas addressed in the workshop: sample frames for surveying physicians and medical groups; points of contact and response modes; response incentives; and questionnaire design and burden. Recommendations were made for improving sample frame databases, optimizing mixed-mode surveys, and studying use of incentives with gatekeepers and in medical group settings. There is particular need for empirical assessment of factors that motivate or impede participation of physicians, other types of clinicians, and medical groups in survey research.