Design and implementation of a survey of senior Canadian healthcare decision-makers: Organization-wide resource allocation processes

Neale Smith, Craig Mitton, Alan Davidson, Jennifer Gibson, Stuart Peacock, Stirling Bryan, Cam Donaldson

aculty of Health and Social Development, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, Canada.
Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC), Vancouver, Canada.
Centre for Clinical Epidemiology & Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada.
epartment of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.
School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

DOI: 10.4236/health.2012.411154                

Abstract

A three-year research project based in British Columbia, Canada, is attempting to develop a framework and tools to assist healthcare system decision-makers achieve “high performance” in resource allocation. In pursuit of this objective, a literature search was conducted and two phases of primary data collection are being undertaken: an online survey of senior healthcare decision-makers, and in-depth case studies of potential “high performing” organizations. This paper addresses the survey phase; our aim is to provide a practical example of the mechanics of survey design, of benefit to those who want to better understand our forthcoming results, but also as an aid to other researchers grappling with the hard choices and trade-offs involved in the survey development process. Survey content is described in light of the existing literature, with discussion of the choices made by the research team to decide what questions and items would be included and excluded. The target population for the survey was senior managers in Canadian regional health authorities (or the closest equivalent organizations) in each of the 10 provinces and 3 territories. The paper dis- cusses how this sample was obtained, and describes the survey implementation process.

Keywords

Health Policy; Resource Allocation; Rationing; Canada

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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