SMS text messaging to measure working time: the design of a time use study among general practitioners
| Autor: | Ronald Batenburg, Lud van der Velden, Daniël van Hassel, Dinny H de Bakker |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Workload data
Adult Male Time Factors Short Message Service Workload computer.software_genre Task (project management) Inequality cohesion and modernization 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine General Practitioners Recall bias Humans Medicine Ongelijkheid cohesie en modernisering Text message (SMS) 030212 general & internal medicine Text Messaging Data collection Multimedia business.industry lcsh:Public aspects of medicine Data Collection 030503 health policy & services Health Policy Reproducibility of Results lcsh:RA1-1270 Usability Working time Health workforce planning Middle Aged Use of time Technical Advance Global Positioning System Feasibility Studies Female Health Services Research 0305 other medical science business computer |
| Zdroj: | BMC Health Services Research BMC Health Services Research, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2018) BMC Health Services Research, 18 |
| ISSN: | 1472-6963 |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12913-018-2926-z |
| Popis: | Background Measuring the working hours of general practitioners (GPs) is an important but complex task due to the effects of bias related to self-reporting, recall, and stress. In this paper we describe the deployment, feasibility, and implementation of an innovative method for measuring, in real time, GPs’ working time, plus the response to the study. Methods A Short Message Service (SMS) application was developed which sent messages at random to GPs during their working week. Approximately nineteen GPs participated each week during a period of 57 weeks. The text messages asked if GPs were doing activities related to patients, directly, indirectly, or not at all, at the moment of sending. Participants were requested to reply by SMS. Results Approximately 27,000 messages were sent to 1051 GPs over more than one year. The SMS system was functioning 99.9% of the time. GPs replied to 94% of all the messages sent. Only a few participants dropped out of the study. The data was available in real time enabling the researchers to monitor the response and overall quality of the data each day. Conclusions The SMS method offers advantages over other instruments of measurement because it allows a better response, ease of use and avoids recall bias. This makes it a feasible method to collect valid data about GPs working time. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-2926-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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