Comparing response rates between mobile web and telephone surveys for patient experience: a randomized experimental study in South Korea (Preprint)

Abstract

Patient experience surveys are now conducted in many countries for the purpose of measuring and improving patient experience. Most patient experience surveys have used mail and telephone modes, although these traditional modes of survey administration have shown low and declining response rates, let alone increasing survey costs. Self-administered mobile web surveys using smartphone can be a promising alternative mode for patient experience surveys. South Korea offers a relevant setting for investigating the effectiveness of the mobile web mode in patient experience survey, with the pressing need to increase response rates in its nationwide Patient Experience Assessment and the country’s favorable technological environment conducive to adopting an innovative survey mode.

The primary aim of this randomized experimental study was to investigate whether using a mobile web survey is effective in improving response rates in South Korea’s Patient Experience Assessment. We also aimed to assess the extent to which the mixed-mode survey that integrates both mobile web and follow-up telephone surveys could increase response rates and to examine gender-age subgroup differences in response rates as well as contract and cooperation rates.

A total of 4,800 patients from four general hospitals were randomly allocated to telephone, mobile web, or mixed-mode survey, each mode comprising 1,600 patients. For each mode, a maximum of five attempts were made, either through phone calls or sending survey links via a messenger application. For the mixed-mode survey, up to five phone calls were made for those who did not respond to the mobile messages sent with the survey link five times. We compared response rates primarily between telephone and mobile web surveys and secondarily between mobile web and mixed-mode surveys. Subgroup differences were examined in terms of response rates as well as contract and cooperation rates.

The mobile web survey yielded overall higher response rates (32.5%) than the telephone survey (22.4%). The mixed-mode survey further increased the response rate (39.3%). Substantial subgroup differences were found, with greater improvements among patients under 60 in the mobile web survey. Decomposing response rates revealed that while contact rates were comparable for both telephone and mobile web surveys, the cooperation rate was considerably higher for mobile web survey (73.2%) compared to telephone survey (52.2%).

Adopting the mobile web survey for patient experience surveys, which aligns with the public's preference for information communication technologies, could significantly improve the performance of patient experience surveys and overall representation of patient experiences.