title: Exploring physician specialist response rates to web-based surveys.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Survey research in healthcare is an important tool to collect information about healthcare delivery, service use and overall issues relating to quality of care. Unfortunately, physicians are often a group with low survey response rates and little research has looked at response rates among physician specialists. For these reasons, the purpose of this project was to explore survey response rates among physician specialists in a large metropolitan Canadian city.
  
  
  METHODS
  As part of a larger project to look at physician payment plans, an online survey about medical billing practices was distributed to 904 physicians from various medical specialties. The primary method for physicians to complete the survey was via the Internet using a well-known and established survey company (www.surveymonkey.com). Multiple methods were used to encourage survey response such as individual personalized email invitations, multiple reminders, and a draw for three gift certificate prizes were used to increase response rate. Descriptive statistics were used to assess response rates and reasons for non-response.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall survey response rate was 35.0%. Response rates varied by specialty: Neurology/neurosurgery (46.6%); internal medicine (42.9%); general surgery (29.6%); pediatrics (29.2%); and psychiatry (27.1%). Non-respondents listed lack of time/survey burden as the main reason for not responding to our survey.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our survey results provide a look into the challenges of collecting healthcare research where response rates to surveys are often low. The findings presented here should help researchers in planning future survey based studies. Findings from this study and others suggest smaller monetary incentives for each individual may be a more appropriate way to increase response rates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. ceara.cunningham@albertahealthservices.ca.
authors.forename: Ceara Tess
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. hquan@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Hude
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Brenda.Hemmelgarn@albertahealthservices.ca.|Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Brenda.Hemmelgarn@albertahealthservices.ca.
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hemmelgarn
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. tnosewor@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Noseworthy
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Cindy.Beck@albertahealthservices.ca.|Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Cindy.Beck@albertahealthservices.ca.
authors.forename: Cynthia A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Elijah.Dixon@albertahealthservices.ca.|Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Elijah.Dixon@albertahealthservices.ca.
authors.forename: Elijah
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Nephrology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. S.Samuel@albertahealthservices.ca.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samuel
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. wghali@ucalgary.ca.|Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. wghali@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Ghali
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. lindsay.sykes@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Lindsay L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Sykes
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Nathalie.Jette@albertahealthservices.ca.|Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute and Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Nathalie.Jette@albertahealthservices.ca.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jetté
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000191:economics*