JK Kemppainen, VA Palo Alto Health Care System

Workshop Objectives: The critical incident technique, a qualitative research methodology has long been used in the service industry to evaluate the expectations and perceptions of consumers. More recently, this research methodology has been applied to the study of patient opinions and experiences in health care settings, an essential dimension in quality of care research. The goal of this workshop is to describe the critical incident technique, and discuss applications to the study of health care quality.

Workshop Activities: Discussion topics will include the meaning of a "critical incident," the basic rationale of the critical incident technique, and the advantages of the critical incident approach. In addition, the workshop will describe how to satisfy the requirements for a critical incident study, collecting and analyzing data, and how to use the results of a critical incident study. Sample interviewing guides will demonstrate the variability of this research methodology. Illustrations of effective and ineffective critical incidents from recent research will be presented, and the use of the critical incident methodology in health services and policy research will also be discussed. This methodology offers three important advantages to researchers interested in designing studies of health care quality: 1) identifying patients’ experiences in health care settings, 2) exploring the dimensions of patient-provider interactions, and 3) identifying patients’ responses to illness and health care treatment. Participants will receive a packet of resources and suggested references.

Target Audience: This workshop is designed for health services researchers who are interested in using this qualitative research methodology, as well as researchers who currently use qualitative methods.

Audience Familiarity: The workshop design assumes little to no experience with this research method.