Strategies for Increasing the Rigor of Qualitative Methods in Evaluation of Health Care Programs

The traditional quantitative emphasis of health services research obscures the fact that qualitative techniques are the best means of investigating the evaluation of certain health services research problems. Two evaluation studies employing qualitative methods are described to illustrate the appropriateness of such methods for addressing certain research questions. A brief discussion of current opinion concerning reliability and validity issues associated with these methods is provided A detailed description of the techniques that can be used to improve the rigor and credibility of qualitative methods in evaluation research concludes this article.