Step 5: Set the Stage for Conducting the Survey
Review all steps in the process of planning a survey project:
- Step 1: Form a Project Team.
- Step 2: Form an Advisory Group.
- Step 3: Define Your Goals.
- Step 4: Plan a Communications Strategy.
- Step 5: Set the Stage for Conducting the Survey.
- Step 6: Develop an Evaluation Plan.
The implementation of a CAHPS survey involves a number of different decisions and tasks covering a wide range of issues. In light of the information you have gathered about stakeholders, the local marketplace, your resources and constraints, and your audiences' needs, you can now begin making initial decisions that will shape how you field the study and analyze the results. Documentation of these decisions will also provide useful material for the statement of work when you issue a request for proposal (RFP) for a survey and/or reporting vendor.
Decisions Related to Sampling and Data Collection
Make preliminary decisions about the following issues:
- What populations will you survey (e.g., adults or children)?
- Do you want responses from any particular subgroups (e.g., adults or children with chronic conditions)?
- Which health care organizations are you asking about? If they have multiple products/services, which do you want to know about?
- How many individuals are eligible to be included in the sample frame for each organization/product?
- What is the target response rate and minimum number of completed surveys required for each organization/product?
- What mode will you use to collect the data (e.g., mail only, phone only, mail with telephone or email followup)?
- For how long will you field the survey?
- Which questionnaires will you use? Which supplemental items (if any)?
- Do you need to translate English questionnaires into other languages?
Decisions Related to Analysis
Make preliminary decisions about the following issues:
- What is the most appropriate reporting unit (e.g., health plan survey results can be reported at the level of products, health plan, purchasers, regions, or states)? Do you need different reporting units for different audiences?
- Will you be analyzing data for adults and children separately or together? Will this vary according to the audience for the report?
- Will you be analyzing heavy users of health care services separately from other users? Will you analyze results separately for children with and without chronic conditions (if applicable)?
- Will you apply case-mix adjustment to the data?
Managing Your Assumptions
Many of the decisions you make will be driven by the scope of your project and the available financial and staff resources. Consequently, you need to regard them as assumptions that are subject to revision based on budget and timing considerations.
Laying out your assumptions and parameters and specifying how they affect each phase of survey administration, analysis, reporting, and distribution of reports serves two purposes:
- It will help you keep track of all of the changes that should occur as assumptions change over time.
- It allows you (as a sponsor) to better understand your options and the implications of various decisions and to set appropriate parameters in your RFP for a vendor, who is likely to handle most of the work.
Also, keep in mind that all of these survey- and data-related issues are interrelated. Decisions in one area inevitably affect what happens in other areas. For example, if your sample does not include a sufficient number of children, you will not have enough responses to conduct analyses that can isolate children's experiences. Similarly, survey-related decisions can also affect the content of your reports.
As a result, the planning process requires that you revisit early decisions in light of later ones and try to balance the need for certain decisions in one area against their consequences in another.
