Conducting physician surveys.

Physician/hospital cooperation is important to the success of health delivery systems. Surveying is one way to evaluate physician attitudes and needs. Personal interviews, telephone interviews and mailed questionnaires are the three principal ways survey data are generated. With physicians, a mailback survey yields the best response, because physicians can control when they respond. Survey methodologists strive to control for any systematic bias that may skew the data. For all surveys, it must be decided if those who responded are representative of all those who could have responded. High-quality surveys sent to doctors once a year with plenty of notification and encouragement to respond will yield the best results. Have a plan of action to deal with the results. Avoid writing questions that have yes/no responses and allow space for physicians to comment on each section.