Data Analysis and Reporting

CSS produces reports that are easily understood and readily used by decision makers at all levels. Our standard reports are user-friendly for both busy executives seeking a quick summary of top-line results and administrators seeking actionable data to inform their quality improvement efforts.

Typically, our reports include:

• A concise summary of key results for quick reference, followed by a more detailed presentation, including a straightforward graphical description of key findings with explanatory text written in plain English
• Detailed "tab and banner" tables showing, for each survey question, the number and percentage of the subject entity's (for example, plan's, hospital's, or physician's) respondents who selected each response option, broken down by respondent characteristics
• A comparison of results with multi-entity (for example, multi-plan, multi-hospital, or multi-physician) averages. For example, a health plan's report might show how that plan's scores compare to the average for other plans of the same size, only commercial plans, only POS plans, or various other benchmarks to meet the client's needs.
• A comparison to previous-year averages.
• Notations throughout the report indicating which differences are statistically significant.
• An analysis of opportunities for improving scores, including a graphic and tabular presentation showing which variables (survey questions) are most strongly correlated with the entity's overall plan rating and how the entity's scores on each of these questions compared to benchmark averages.
• A full description of the survey process, including (depending on whether the survey is done by mail, phone, or a combination) statistics on the percentage of sample members who had bad addresses, the percentage for whom address changes were made, the percentage for whom phone numbers were provided in the sample frame data, the percentage for whom CSS found phone numbers from other sources, and the percentage of sample members accounted for by each type of mail, phone, or Internet disposition.
• A complete set of the survey materials sent to sample members, including cover letters, postcards, and questionnaires; a copy of the telephone script and interviewer instructions; and/or sample pages from an Internet survey.

We provide bound written copies and/or electronic (PDF) versions of our reports, as well as well-documented data files that the client can use, if it wishes, in additional analyses. CSS also provides response data files in whichever common formats the client specifies, including ASCII, DBF, SPSS, Excel, and Access.

CSS customarily works with clients to devise tailored reports that will meet their specific reporting requirements in a cost efficient manner.