Why were some practices excluded and were these the ones appealing?
I'm not a statistician, but what is the difference between
"qualifying patients" [1] and "responses" [2]?
135 practices had "fewer than 50 qualifying patients" but only 47 had
fewer than 50 responses.
A further 18 practices were excluded from the analysis for reasons not
stated.
How would inclusion of these practices have affected the results, and
how many of the appeals came from practices in the group not included in
the analysis?
The authors say that there is a bias in survey response towards
positive responses. Does this apply across all subjects and all types of
surveys? I had thought the bias was in the other direction!
The government is seeking to introduce patient satisfaction surveys
as a factor in hospital remuneration: does anyone have any indication as
to whether hospital payments will be based on the same access questions?
Mary Hawking
GP Dunstable
[1]"Out of 8426 practices in England, 135 with fewer than 50
qualifying patients at the time of sampling were excluded, as were another
18 practices, leaving 8273 (mean list size 4946 patients) contributing to
the data."
[2] "An average of 261.7 (standard deviation 39.9) patients responded in
each practice; 361 practices (4.4%) had fewer than 200 responses, and 47
practices (0.6%) had fewer than 50 responses."
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
12 October 2009
Mary Hawking
GP
Kingsbury Curt Surgery Church Street Dunstable LU5 4RS
Rapid Response:
Why were some practices excluded and were these the ones appealing?
I'm not a statistician, but what is the difference between
"qualifying patients" [1] and "responses" [2]?
135 practices had "fewer than 50 qualifying patients" but only 47 had
fewer than 50 responses.
A further 18 practices were excluded from the analysis for reasons not
stated.
How would inclusion of these practices have affected the results, and
how many of the appeals came from practices in the group not included in
the analysis?
The authors say that there is a bias in survey response towards
positive responses. Does this apply across all subjects and all types of
surveys? I had thought the bias was in the other direction!
The government is seeking to introduce patient satisfaction surveys
as a factor in hospital remuneration: does anyone have any indication as
to whether hospital payments will be based on the same access questions?
Mary Hawking
GP Dunstable
[1]"Out of 8426 practices in England, 135 with fewer than 50
qualifying patients at the time of sampling were excluded, as were another
18 practices, leaving 8273 (mean list size 4946 patients) contributing to
the data."
[2] "An average of 261.7 (standard deviation 39.9) patients responded in
each practice; 361 practices (4.4%) had fewer than 200 responses, and 47
practices (0.6%) had fewer than 50 responses."
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests