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Measuring physician practice site characteristics: A comparison of data from SK&A and a practice site survey
Author(s) -
Maurer Kristin A.,
Blue Laura,
Orzol Sean,
Morrison Hensleigh Nikkilyn,
Peikes Deborah
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
health services research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.706
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1475-6773
pISSN - 0017-9124
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6773.13601
Subject(s) - survey data collection , comparability , web survey , clinical practice , web site , medicine , survey research , survey methodology , health care , psychology , family medicine , data science , computer science , statistics , applied psychology , world wide web , mathematics , the internet , political science , pathology , combinatorics , law
Objective To evaluate the comparability of commercially available practice site data from SK&A with survey data to understand the implications of using SK&A data for health services research. Data sources Responses to the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) Practice Survey and SK&A data. Study design Comparison of CPC + Practice Survey responses to SK&A information for 2698 primary care practice sites. Data collection CPC + Practice Survey data collected through a web‐only survey from April through September 2017, and SK&A data purchased in November 2016. Principal findings Information was similar across data sources, although some discrepancies were common. For example, 56% of practice sites had differences in the reported number of practitioners, and larger sites tended to have larger differences. Among practice sites with 1 practitioner in the survey, only 1.3% had a difference of 3 or more practitioners between the data sources, whereas 63% of practice sites with 11 or more practitioners had a difference of 3 or more practitioners. Conclusions Discrepancies between data sources could reflect differences of interpretation when defining practice site characteristics, changes over time in those characteristics, or data errors in either SK&A or the survey. Researchers using SK&A data should consider possible ramifications for their studies.