DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36113.v2
title: National Survey of Small and Medium-Sized Physician Practices (NSSMPP), 2007-2009
title: Version 2

description: Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Study of Small and Medium-sized Physician Practices (NSSMPP) was designed to provide information about physician practices with 1-19 physicians. The survey focused on the use of information technology and care management processes for four major chronic illnesses: asthma, congestive heart failure, depression, and diabetes. Other topics covered by the survey include practice type, size, ownership and the breakdown of patients by race and Hispanic origin; clinical preventative services and health promotion; health insurance plan activities in preventative care and care for patients with chronic illness; performance reporting and incentives; revenue sources and compensation methods; and organizational culture.
NSSMPP was also designed to assist the RWJF-funded Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) project by providing baseline data about small and medium sized practices in the AF4Q sites. AF4Q was a national program that aimed to lift the quality of health care in 16 targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in those communities and provide models for national reform.
NSSMPP built on two previous studies -- the National Study of Physician Organizations and the Management of Chronic Illness (NSPO), 2000-2001 (ICPSR 4455) and the National Study of Physician Organizations and the Management of Chronic Illness II (NSPO2), 2006-2007 (ICPSR 29801) -- which collected information about medical groups and independent practice associations (IPAs) with 20 or more physicians.
description: The weights range from 1 to 116.53, with a mean of 14.27. Because practices in the national site were under-sampled, they have much higher weights than average, consisting 31 percent of the unweighted sample but 91 percent of the total weight.
description: Response Rates: 63.2
description: NSSMPP used a proprietary database of physician practices provided by IMS Health (IMS Health Incorporated, Healthcare Organizational Services), with assistance from a team at Dartmouth College, to select practices in 14 of the 16 AF4Q sites and the rest of the United States. Practices were selected using a with-replacement stratified sampling design based on AF4Q site, specialty-type, and practice size. Given the four major chronic diseases on which the survey focused, practices were selected only if they were primary care, single specialty cardiology, endocrinology or pulmonology, or multispecialty practices with significant numbers of physicians in these specialties. NSSMPP oversampled the AF4Q sites and, insofar as possible, tried to sample reasonable numbers of practices of each of the above specialty types, as well as practices in four size categories: 1-2, 3-8, 9-12, and 13-19 physicians. The goal was to obtain completed interviews from 120 practices in each of the AF4Q sites and at least 500 practices in the national stratum. Altogether, 1,201 practices in the AF4Q sites and 544 practices from the rest of the United States responded to the survey.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: National Survey of Small and Medium-Sized Physician Practices (NSSMPP), 2007-2009
description: Small and medium-sized physician practices (1-19 physicians) in primary care, single specialty cardiology, endocrinology or pulmonology, or multispecialty practices with significant numbers of physicians in these specialties.
description: telephone interviewAdditional information about Aligning Forces for Quality is available on the AF4Q Web site.Additional information about NSSMPP is available on the website of the National Study of Physician Organizations.