Common Errors Can Impede the Success of Quality Improvement Surveys

Quality improvement (QI) projects often use surveys to gather data, but expertise in survey design isn’t always available to every project team. A recent study(1) illustrates the unpredictable quality of locally developed surveys for QI, showing that development of surveys requires special expertise in addition to careful consideration and time.

What Kinds of Errors Were Found?

When your QI project needs a survey, and there’s no expert available, the 23 common errors identified in this study can act as a guide to help strengthen your final product. They’ll help you look out for things like:

• Survey questions with the potential to cause distress

• Questions that conflict with existing guidelines

• Double-barreled questions (i.e., a single question that’s assessing two independent things at once)

• Response options using a skewed or biased scale

• Inconsistent or confusing response options

Adding to Your Toolbox
Check out the complete study and consider adding its list of common errors and quality assessment criteria to your organization’s quality improvement toolbox.

 1) Reed, Julie E., Julie K. Johnson, Robert Zanni, Randy Messier, Fadi Asfour, and Marjorie M. Godfrey. 2024. “Quality of Locally Designed Surveys in a Quality Improvement Collaborative: Review of Survey Validity and Identification of Common Errors.” BMJ Open Quality 13 (1): e002387. https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/13/1/e002387.