Comparing Web-based with Mail Survey Administration of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Clinician and Group Survey

CONTEXT: survey instruments are widely used to assess patient experiences with care but there is limited information about web-based data collection with them. OBJECTIVE: Clinician and Group survey data. DESIGN SETTING AND PATIENTS: Clinician and Group Survey to patients who had visited one of six clinics over a four-month period in Minnesota. A total of 410 patients responded to the web-based survey (14% response rate) and 982 patients responded to the mail survey (33% response rate). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: survey dimensions and individual question responses, response rates, and participant characteristics. RESULTS: =10.88, 1 df, p=0.001). Costs of web-based surveys were less than mailed surveys and were returned more quickly than mailed surveys. The correlations between reports and ratings of clinicians and clinics by mode were unreliable because of the relatively small number of web responses. CONCLUSION: Web-based surveys yielded comparable results to mail (except for questions addressing access) more quickly at lower costs. The low response rates in this study are a concern although this was not intended as a test of increasing response rates. Strategies to increase response rates will be a key element of web-based data collection. The differences in costs will be an incentive for organizations to continue to pursue web-based surveying. Further studies are needed to evaluate the generalizability of the results of this one.