Optimalisatie van de werkingsprocessen van het Bijzonder ... - KCE

116 Special Solidarity Fund KCE Reports 133
9.5 SEGMENTATION CRITERIA OF THE SAMPLE PRESCRIBING
PHYSICIANS
To build our theoretical purposal sample, we used the following segmentation
(stratification) criteria:
• The number of applications introduced (‘small’ prescribers - with less than
18 prescriptions versus ‘big’ prescribers’ - with more than 18
applications): the threshold of the number of applications was set
according to the percentile 50 of the distribution of the applications >=10.
• The setting: university hospital, non-university hospital, private practice:
justification of the use of the criteria is the same as for the sample of
social services. However, an additional setting could be added here, i.e.
private practice. Indeed, according to the NIHDI individual data available
(for which patients have given their informed consent to be included in
the database to analyze 23 ), about a quarter of the requests for
reimbursement have been introduced after a prescription by a private
medical physician. The rest of the applications are linked to a ‘hospital
prescriber’. Moreover, the presence of social services in hospitals and the
collaboration with peers could be factors that change perception of the
functioning of the SSF.
• The working language of the physicians: French- or Dutch-speaking
We did not search to reach theoretical saturation but to approach it we foresee to
interview at least 2 physicians per segment, i.e. 24 persons.
We recruited participating physicians through a list of willing to participate physicians.
Indeed, the 62 doctors who have submitted more than 10 applications for
compensation by the SSF in 2006 and 2007 (most up-to-date data available at the
moment of selection) were asked to participate in the survey by written informed
consent (information letter see annex 9.2.). Twenty-two doctors have responded
positively. The number of participants needed to perform focus groups was thus too
small and confirms the need to perform individual interviews.
The 22 physicians willing to participate were first identified through an internet search.
Based on this action, we found that all doctors (22) who had given their consent for
participation were associated with a hospital. Consequently, the initial criterion of
“private practice” was irrelevant and abandoned and the number of doctors to be
interviewed was reduced from 24 (12 segments) to 16 (8 segments). Secondly we
noticed that only one doctor, willing to participate, fitted in the segment of university
hospital/small applicant/French speaking. In the segment university hospital/small
applicant/Flemish speaking two potential doctors were identified but only one interview
could take place. In the segment non university/big applicant/French speaking only one
interview could take place.
The doctors were contacted by phone to ask them the confirmation of their
participation and to schedule an appointment. We used an Excel sheet, where the
number of applications was sorted ascendingly and the percentile 50 was calculated. We
contacted the doctors as much as possible starting from the extremes.
23 see section on the data analyse