Mixed Methods, Mixed Methodology Health Services Research in Practice

The author presents a synthesis of literature that informed the decision to adopt a mixed methods, mixed methodology, dominantly naturalistic study approach to health services research in which she explored the process and organizational consequences of new artifact adoption in surgery.

Abstract

Mixed methods, mixed methodology research is a little documented but increasingly accepted approach employed to investigate organizational phenomena. The author presents a synthesis of literature that informed the decision to adopt a mixed methods, mixed methodology, dominantly naturalistic study approach to health services research in which she explored the process and organizational consequences of new artifact adoption in surgery. She describes the way whereby a collective case study involving five Australian hospitals yielded quantitative and qualitative data that were analyzed using inductive and/or deductive reasoning. She goes beyond the theoretical rational for employing a mixed methods, mixed methodology approach to present a summative conceptual model of the research process and describe the structural aspects of the dissertation in which the research was reported that should benefit researchers contemplating the value of such an approach.