Enrollment Process for Bright Futures
Offering and Collecting Surveys
Patients approached to participate in survey:
All females 21 and over seeing one of the four participating providers for an adult physical.
Pros – Choosing a specific age range and appointment type in which to offer the survey made it a simple task to know who to contact.
Cons – Not necessarily inclusive of all patients who might benefit from Bright Futures material (diabetics, depression…). Not all patients coming for appointments were physically and/or mentally capable of filling out materials requested, thusly lowering enrollment possibilities (two group home patients counted as eligible but did not participate simply because they could not understand the material).
Patient Enrollment Process:
Participating providers schedules were printed off two weeks in advance and eligible women were contacted by telephone and asked to participate.
Pros – Knowing ahead of time if patients were willing to participate so nursing staff and provider could be prepared.
Cons – High rate of refusal. Patients not having a full understanding of what they were being asked to do. Possibility of patients feeling like we were making a marketing call. Contacting patients two week ahead of time was not efficient due to rescheduling and cancellations. Telephone calls tended to be very time consuming.
Patient enrollment process changed.
New Patient Enrollment Process:
Participating provider’s schedules were printed off one week ahead of time. Patients were mailed the first page of the survey and a welcome letter explaining the process and what would be required of them.
Pros – Patients not feeling bothered by marketing-type calls. Having a better understanding of what they were participating in after receiving the information in the mail. Higher enrollment!
Cons – Not knowing who was going to participate before hand which makes it hard to keep track of who consented to the survey as we have three other sites participating. Difficult to inform nurses and providers to prepare for Bright Futures ahead of time.
Overall Pros –
-As of 4/9/08, 25 patients had agreed to participate in the Bright Futures survey.
-KVHC staff was allowed to participate in Bright Futures survey which allowed for an additional 18 surveys to be completed.
Overall Cons –
-Time consuming process to get patients enrolled, collect appropriate forms, and record accurate information.
- Time consuming on the providers part. Typical physical is 40 minutes (female physical with pap is 60 minutes)—it takes 20 minutes to ½ hour to cover Bright Futures.
-Difficult to manage and maintain accurate information with multiple sites participating.
-Patients were unwilling to stay after appointment to complete the rest of the survey when survey was offered before they were seen.
-Patients were unwilling to stay after appointment to complete the rest of the survey when the provider has already gone over the material during their visit. Four or five patients completed the first page of the survey but were allowed to take surveys home and never returned the remainder of the survey after their visit.
KatahdinValleyHealthCenter Patten, Maine