Design a questionnaire to learn how New Century patients feel about insurance procedures and appointment scheduling. Your questionnaire should be designed for a sample group of patients, and should follow the suggestions in this chapter. After you complete the questionnaire, select a sampling method and explain your choice.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. The main purpose of the assignment is to give students an opportunity to apply what they learned in the chapter, including the guidelines for creating questionnaires, and sampling strategies.
This might be a good time for the class to critique the assignments in a group, using the text guidelines for reference. You might use the sample shown in Figure 4-22 on page 129 as an example, and ask students how they would grade it on each of the nine guidelines. Discuss the pros and cons of questionnaires versus interviews.
In answering the question on sampling, students should consider all three approaches: systematic sampling, stratified sampling, and random sampling. Systematic sampling would be a good way to get a cross-section of all patients, but stratified sampling might be better if there were distinct categories of patients — for example, those covered by insurance and those who are not.
Random sampling is an easy, quick way to obtain a sample group, but results could be distorted by the timing and methods used. For example, a random sample of patients might not include a representative number with outstanding balances if the sample were taken just prior to the monthly mailing of statements. If input from this group was important to your understanding of the system, you might have to select a different sampling method.

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