Reaching Emergency Medical Services Providers: Is One Survey Mode Better than Another?

AbstractObjectives. To determine which mode of completing a survey yields the highest response rate among emergency medical services (EMS) providers, examine rural and urban differences, and determine the completeness of questions by mode of response. Methods. A random sample of EMS providers was mailed one of the following: 1) a paper survey, with instructions to return it via the enclosed self-addressed, stamped envelope; 2) a letter, with instructions to complete the survey at the provided URL (Web address); or 3) a paper survey with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a URL, with the option of choosing the mode of response. We compared response rates based on the three different modes. We conducted analysis of the number of skipped multiple-choice and open-ended questions by mode and content analysis of the open-ended questions. Results. The paper-only option resulted in the highest response rate (40.4%, p = 0.003) compared with the response rates from Web-only and choice of mode. Overall, rural EM...