Development and psychometric assessment of a novel survey to measure care coordination from the specialist's perspective

• Published in: Health services research Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 689 - 699
• Main Authors: Vimalananda, Varsha G., Fincke, Benjamin Graeme, Qian, Shirley, Waring, Molly E., Seibert, Ryan G., Meterko, Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Health Research and Educational Trust 01.06.2019; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Comprehensive Health Care - organization & administration; Confirmatory factor analysis; consultation; Convergent validity; coordinated care; Coordination; Data collection; Data transfer (computers); Discriminant validity; Domains; Factor analysis; Female; Goodness of fit; Health care; Health care industry; Humans; Literature reviews; Male; Medical personnel; Methods; Methods Corner; Middle Aged; Military hospitals; Outcome and process assessment (Health Care); Outcome and process assessment (Medical care); Physicians; Physicians - psychology; Polls & surveys; Primary care; Psychometrics; Quantitative psychology; Regression analysis; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Scaling; Specialists; Specialization; specialty care; survey research; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; United States; United States Department of Veterans Affairs; Validity; Veterans; United States; psychometrics; consultation; coordinated care; survey research; specialty care
• ISSN: 0017-9124; 1475-6773
• DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.13148

Objective To develop an online survey of care coordination with primary care providers as experienced by medical specialists, evaluate its psychometric properties, and test its construct validity. Data Sources Physicians (N = 633) from 13 medical specialties across the Veterans Health Administration. Study Design We developed the survey based on prior work (literature review, specialist interviews) and by adapting existing measures and developing new items. Multitrait scaling analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess scale structure. We used multiple linear regression to examine the relationship of the final coordination scales to specialists’ overall experience of care coordination. Data Collection November 2016‐December 2016. Principal Findings Results suggest a 13‐item, four‐factor survey [Relationships (k = 4), Roles and Responsibilities (k = 4), Communication (k = 3), and Data Transfer (k = 2)] that measures the medical specialist experience of coordination with good internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and goodness of fit. Together, the four scales explained nearly 50 percent of the variance in specialists’ overall experience of care coordination. Conclusions The 13‐item Coordination of Specialty Care—Specialist Survey (CSC‐Specialist) is the first of its kind. It can be used alone or embedded in other surveys to measure four domains of care coordination as experienced by medical specialists.