Answer

Staffing Assignment: Informational Approach in Measuring Organizational Effectiveness

This is a questionnaire for National Outpatient Survey developed by the Picker Institute of Europe (PIE) on the behalf of the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The aim of the questionnaire is to understand the perceptions of outpatients about health services offered by the Trust. The questionnaire employs standard questions in achieving its objectives in line with the specifications of the Co-ordination Centre for the NHS Patient Survey Program, which is based at PIE.

Who is Likely to Receive and Complete the Questionnaire

The survey adopted a random sampling technique in which outpatients, who participated in an appointment held on May 2011, were randomly sampled. As such, only the outpatients who were part of the appointment were valid to participate in the study. Random sampling was conducted to ensure an equal or uniform representation of the individuals who attended the appointed since all of the could not be included in the study. Only a few of them were interviewed to help in the determination of the effectiveness of the trust in meeting the needs patients. Since the postal questionnaire was sent to participants, the persons eligible for completing it was those whose names were on the front of the envelop. Any assistance to the person answering the questions was to be done in line with the interviewees’ point of view.

Questionnaire was sent to 850 outpatients out of whom 837 were eligible for the study. 489 out of the 837 outpatients managed to return a completed questionnaire, thereby leading to a 58% response rate (Picker Institute Europe, 2011).   As such, the research could be executed successfully using this response.

Why the Questionnaire has Created the Questionnaire

This questionnaire has been created to help the organization understand the thinking of outpatients on the healthcare services it provides, an approach that can help the Trust identify its effectiveness it providing services to patients. The questionnaire focuses on the organization’s most recent outpatients appointment. Since the questionnaire reflects the patients’ concerns and priorities and is based on what is significant from the perspective of the patient, it is valid for this purpose (i.e. measuring the effectiveness of the organization in providing healthcare services to patients).

According to Hennink & Hutter (2010) the use of standard questions ensures that all participants are exact the same questions in a similar order. Such an approach provides a suitable platform on which questionnaire can be replicated/duplicated easily to determine the reliability of the results of the study. Since this questionnaire employs standard questions in realizing its objective, a second researcher can determine the consistency of the results obtained from it, making it reliable.       

How Difficult it is for Someone to Evaluate the Participants’ Answers

Evaluating the answers provided by respondents in this questionnaire is easy, as it is based on standard questions. Besides, the closed questions approach that has been  employed in designing the questionnaire ensures that participants only issues answers that are focused on the objective of the survey. According to Fiona, Kath & Debra (2014), closed questions ensures that answers are structured in a manner that enables them to fit into various categories designed in advance by the researcher. This argument is evident in the questionnaire since it has various categories such as before the appointment, arrival at the hospital, waiting in the hospital, hospital facilities and environment, test and treatment, seeing a doctor, and seeing another professional among others.

It is also vital to note that since most of the questions involved in the questionnaire are limited to two aspects (e.g. male or female, yes or no) or cover quite complex list of options from which participants can choose, respondents offer information that can be converted easily into quantitative data (e.g. counting the number of no or yes answers). Therefore, the evaluation of results obtained using this questionnaire is easy.      

What is Likely to be Learnt from the Answers Submitted

Fiona, Kath & Debra (2014) argue that a questionnaire should be designed in a manner that leads to the attainment of the objectives of a research. The key objective of this questionnaire was to ascertain the effectiveness of the Trust (Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) in delivering healthcare services to patients by evaluating the perceptions of patients about this organization. Considering that the questions involved in this questionnaire were targeted at determining the effectiveness of the Trust is delivering services to patients, several issues can be learnt from the answers submitted by the respondents.

These issues are related to the various categories established by the researcher. For example, focusing on these questions can help in the determination of the experience that patients often obtain from Trust before having appointment and after arriving at the hospital. Moreover, the results obtained in this study can also reveal the experiences of patients while waiting in the hospital. These results can also provide information on the environment and facilities of the hospital as well as the treatment and test processes. In addition, these outcomes can also reveal the levels of proficiency of the facility’s doctors as well as other professionals in delivering services to patients.

The Effects the Answers are Likely to have on the Organization

Hennink & Hutter (2010) argue that having an effective questionnaire that addresses the issues involved in the research’s objectives is significant in ensuring that relevant results, which can be acted on to yield the desired changes in an organization, are obtained. As such, researchers should ensure that the possible outcomes a questionnaire can generate are relevant to the issues affecting the concerned organizations.

Since the results obtained from study can provide information on issues such as environment and hospital facilities, test and treatment processes, and levels/quality of services provided the organization’s doctors and other professionals, they help the Trust discover areas that need improvements within their service delivery system. As such, the organization is placed at a suitable position of improving its treatment and test processes and environment as well as enhancing the experiences of patients during visits to and waiting in the hospital.

Outcomes obtained from this study also ensure that the organization identifies weaknesses associated with the levels of service delivery that are offered by doctors. As result, the Trust can manage to enhance the overall levels of service delivery and patients’ experience, thereby improving its effectiveness.   

How the Survey would be Redesigned and Improved

I would improve the effectiveness of the design employed in this study in several ways. First, I would ensure that respondents are selected using a thorough process based on their consent to participant in the study. Fiona, Kath & Debra (2014) argue that one of the ways through which a study can be made to adhere to the ethical conducts of a social research is seeking the consent of individuals prior to involving them in a study. This study does not reveal whether the consent of participants was sought or not.

The method employed in administering questionnaires to respondents does not provide a suitable way of ensuring that a third party does not influence the answers issued by respondents. Since the questionnaires were issued through postal addresses, chances are that the participants could have been assisted in answering the research questions. I would ensure that this weakness is addressed by inviting participants in a room and issuing each of them with a questionnaire under my supervision.

This study is chiefly based on close-ended questions. I would ensure that the research employs both closed and open-ended questions in realizing its objectives. Closed-ended questions could help in the provision of statistical information about the issue under investigation (effectiveness of the trust in the delivery of healthcare services), while open ended questions could help in the provision of descriptive information for the research (Hennink & Hutter, 2010). Moreover, the use of open-ended questions could ensure that the research identifies other issues related to services delivery, which are without the realm of the researcher’s mind. Adhering to these measures could help improve the study’s overall effectiveness.         

In conclusion, the questionnaire employed in the realization of the study’s objective is effective. The questionnaire is designed using standard questions, which are of closed nature, making it easy for respondents to provide answers that are relevant to the issue under investigation. However, the study’s design can be improved by incorporating open-ended questions, and making participants complete the questionnaires in a room.    

ensue with the findings’ validity with respect to the sample size that was used. With the small sample size that Sewdas et al.’s (2017) study employed, there are very little room for generalizing the study’s findings.