Health and Care Experience Survey 2023/24 Technical Report

Data Entry and Fieldwork Quality Control

Data Capture

Once respondents received the initial letter, they could complete the questionnaire online or via the survey helpline. Data from these responses was captured automatically for the online questionnaire, or by the helpline team for telephone completions.

Following the reminder letter, paper copies of questionnaires received were logged and scanned on a daily basis by staff at IQVIA. A verification process was then carried out for each batch scanned and a number of integrity checks were undertaken to ensure that the scanning process had worked correctly and all data had been captured as expected.

Data from online questionnaires is automatically stored alongside the data from the paper questionnaires, and held separately from the names and addresses of people who were sampled for the survey.

Verification and Upload Process

Once captured, all data were checked in house by IQVIA according to pre-set verification rules, by staff who have been given training and detailed instructions about the survey. The data entry system ensured that only valid answer codes for each question could be entered and that the correct data appeared in each field. Other checks included ensuring that numeric data was the correct format and that fields were not truncated in error.

Once the survey responses were transferred to Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government statisticians, further validation checks were run on the data to ensure data integrity was maintained.

Secure Disposal

The names and addresses of people who were selected for the survey were stored securely by IQVIA until the survey fieldwork was completed and then deleted.

Once processed, all returned questionnaires were immediately stored by IQVIA in labelled containers and archived in a secure room on-site. Once the survey fieldwork was complete and all questionnaires had been scanned in, the paper copies of the questionnaires were securely destroyed. Scanned completed questionnaires are held by the survey contractor for six months following the completion of fieldwork before being destroyed.

IQVIA hold a copy of the pseudonymised respondent dataset following the completion of fieldwork in case errors were identified during analysis. This does not contain any patient identifiable information and is held by the survey contractor for six months following the completion of fieldwork before being destroyed.

Free Text Comments

The survey asked respondents if there was anything else that they would like to tell us about their experiences of their local General Practice or Out of Hours health care.

Just over 43,803 free-text comments were received. Details that could be used to identify people were redacted when the comments were entered by staff at IQVIA. These details included personal names, addresses, medical conditions and dates. Staff names were also redacted.

Quality checks were undertaken on records to ensure that the instructions for redacting details that might identify an individual were followed.

Redacted free-text comments related to the General Practice will be shared with the General Practice through a secure dashboard.