Suppose you are an intern at a hospital with the task of developing a survey regarding patients’

attitudes toward their care while they were hospitalized. Hospital administration will provide a list of patients who were treated and discharged during the past month, and who agreed to be contacted for follow-up surveys. Administrators would like to know whether patients’ level of satisfaction with hospital procedures (e.g., admission/discharge, pharmacy, billing) change over the 2, 6, and 12 months post discharge.

A. Describe the two survey research designs that could be used to answer the administrators’

questions. Outline how each of these designs could be implemented for this project, and describe the advantages and possible limitations of each design.

B. Staff at the hospital suggest three approaches for the survey method: (1) select a random sample of patients from the list of patients and use a phone survey to administer the questionnaire; (2) send a letter to a random sample of the patients that includes a link to the questionnaire on the hospital website; and (3) post an announcement about the survey on the hospital website and ask patients to complete the questionnaire on the website.

Describe the advantages and limitations of each approach, then provide your recommendation and rationale for the approach you think would be best.

C. Write an example of a free-response (open ended)

and a closed question that could be used on the patient questionnaire. Use these examples to describe the advantages and disadvantages of each type of question.