237575 Increasing Response Rates When Surveying Medical Practices: An EHR Survey Example

Tuesday, November 1, 2011: 8:50 AM

Daniel Weston II, MBA , Government Resource Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Elizabeth Stasny, PhD , Department of Statistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Timothy Sahr, MPH, MA, ThM, MDiv , Government Resource Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Lorin Ranbom, MA , Government Resource Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
To determine electronic health record (EHR) use and adoption rates, Ohio State University conducted a mixed-mode sample of 4,843 Ohio primary care physicians, dentists, pediatricians, medical specialists, and nurse practitioners/nurse midwives. The sample frame consisted of Medicaid's 2010 provider list and the National Provider Identifier Registry for Ohio. A staged process of postcard notification, e-mail, mailing of the instrument for fax response, follow-up postcard and e-mails, and an option of instrument delivery was implemented. The survey aimed to determine EHR uptake, barriers to adoption, and likelihood of EHR adoption. Fielding was scheduled for 6 weeks. After 3-weeks, 6.4% of contacts returned a completed survey. Given low response rate (RR), we adjusted the protocol and initiated a telephone campaign to urge survey completion. Options given included: phone interviews, return by fax, return by e-mail, and return by postage – inclusive faxing of non-respondents included a cover letter and instrument. This was followed by phone contact and resulted in a 19.3% RR. Given a mixed-mode collection, a judgement poststratification estimator of having an EHR was employed. The mixed-mode was most effective for specialists, primary care physicians, and dentists, and least effective for nurse practitioners/nurse midwives. We conclude that medical professionals are more likely to respond to mixed-mode surveys. The survey found that small practices report being financially inhibited from fully implementing EHRs and that assistance will be needed to meet national recommendations for EHRs – especially in small rural practices.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Other professions or practice related to public health
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. To increase awareness of mixed-mode survey methods to medical providers 2. To increase awareness of the the utility of adminsitrative data records in sampling 3. To increase awareness of options for analyzing mixed-mode medical provider surveys

Keywords: Survey, Health Information Systems

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I helped develop the mixed-mode method for the survey
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.