2 Interview Protocol

Form Approved
OMB No. 0935-XXXX
Exp. Date XX/XX/20XX

MUI Initiative Evaluation
Practice Leader/Staff Interview Protocol
(Base Year)

Introduction
Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. My name is [interviewer name] and I’m from the
RAND Corporation. I’m also joined by [Note-taker name] who will help with taking notes. We are a
private, not-for-profit research organization that has been contracted by the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (or AHRQ) to evaluate the overall Managing Urinary Incontinence (or MUI)
initiative of which the project your practice is participating in, [Grantee project name], is a part.
The purpose of our evaluation is to examine experiences and other data across all five MUI grantee
projects on how to improve the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based urinary
incontinence (or UI) treatment for women in primary care practices.
As part of our evaluation, we are conducting interviews with practice leaders such as yourself in primary
care practices participating in [Grantee project name] and other MUI projects. We want to emphasize
that we are not evaluating your practice but are here to learn from your experiences in the [Grantee
project name] project and with implementing improvements in UI care for women.
We’ll be specifically asking you questions on topics including the:
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Types of technical assistance, resources, and support you have received to improve UI care.

•

Progress your practice has made and challenges it’s encountered in implementing changes and
tools promoted by the [Grant project name] project and improving UI care for women.

•

Suggestions for improving the [Grant project name] project or assistance, resources, and
supports it provides.

Informed Consent
Before we get to these topics, we’d like you to know:
•

We will use the information you share with us for research purposes only.

•

All of your responses will be kept confidential.

This survey is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 299a. The confidentiality of your responses to this survey is protected
by Sections 944(c) and 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act [42. U.S.C. 299c-3(c) and 42 U.S.C. 242md(d)].
Information that could identify you will not be disclosed unless you have consented to that disclosure. Your
participation is voluntary and all of your answers will be kept confidential to the extent permitted by law. Public
report burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per response, the estimated
time required to complete the survey. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments
regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for
reducing this burden, to: AHRQ Reports Clearance Officer Attention: PRA, Paperwork Reduction Project (0935XXXX) AHRQ, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room #07W42, Rockville, MD 20857.

•

No one, except the RAND Evaluation team will have access to the information you provide. We
will only produce summary information from our collective set of interviews for distribution
outside of the Evaluation team.
o We will not report information in any way that identifies you or your practice to anyone
outside the Evaluation team without your permission.

•

Your participation is completely voluntary:
o Your participation or nonparticipation will not be reported to anyone, including the
[Grantee project name] project or AHRQ.
o You may stop the interview at any time for any reason, and you are free to decline to
discuss any topic that we raise.

You should have received a Project Information Sheet attached to the email confirmation for this
interview that covers all of this information. That email also includes contact information for the project
director if you have questions about the study, as well as for RAND’s Human Subjects Protection
Committee if you have questions about your rights as a research participant.
Do you recall seeing that document?
[IF NO] (in-person): Here is a copy.
(virtual): We’ll send you that document again so you have a written copy of this information.
[IF YES] Great.
Do you agree to be interviewed?
With your permission, we’d also like to audio-record the interview to ensure we capture your remarks
accurately. Only the RAND Evaluation team will have access to the recording, and the recording will be
destroyed at the end of the MUI initiative.
Would it be okay to audio-record the interview?
Do you have any questions about the MUI evaluation before we begin?

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Interview Questions
PRACTICE CONTEXT
1) First, please tell us about your role at [name of practice] and how long you’ve been here?
2) Can you give us a brief history of [name of practice]? Just the highlights would be fine.
Probes: How was the practice started, and when? What have been the biggest changes over the
past few years? [if not clear:] Have there been any changes to the ownership or affiliation of the
practice, such as with larger systems or medical groups?
3) In terms of general experience with quality improvement, what kinds of specialized staff or roles
for QI, if any, are there within the practice?
a. What kinds of external QI staff or resources support the practice?
b. What other QI projects like [Grant project name] has your practice participated in over
the past 2 years?
REACH
4) Next we’d like to know, what motivated your practice to join the [Grantee project name]
project?
Probes: How was your practice recruited? What was attractive about the project?
PROCESS
1) What did UI treatment for women in your practice look like before it joined [Grantee project
name]?
a. What aspects of UI care would you say your practice has typically done well?
b. What aspects of UI care have needed the most improvement?
Probes: For example, UI screening, diagnosis, management, or referral.
2) Has your practice ever tried to improve UI care for women in the past? If so, how did it go?
3) How much support is there currently among practice leaders for improving UI care for women?
Why?
4) How much support is there currently among practice providers and staff for improving UI care
for women? Why?
Probes: Is there a champion for UI care and participating in [Grantee project name]? Who thinks
it’s important? Who thinks it isn’t? What are their motivations or reasons?
5) Who in the practice is or will be involved with the [Grant project name] effort to improve UI
care? What are or will they doing?

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6) What are the biggest challenges you have encountered or foresee in improving UI care for
women in your practice?
Probes: Workflow or provider/staff time constraints, changes to EHR, competing improvement
priorities, provider or staff resistance, etc.
a. How has the practice overcome, or do you think you might overcome, these challenges?
7) What is your understanding of the resources and help that your practice will be receiving from
the [Grant project name] project?
Probe on the technical assistance components and resources described in the background
summary for [Grantee project].
a. Which of these resources do you expect might be the most helpful?
8) What concerns or reservations might you have about participating in the [Grantee project
name] project?
Probes: Complexity or requirements of the [Grant project], burden on practice, meeting project
expectations, not getting enough or the right types of support from the [Grant project], etc.
a. What would help address those concerns?
9) What are you most looking forward to about the project?
IMPACT
10) Lastly, from your perspective, what would success look like at the end of the [Grant project
name] project?
Probing questions:
a.
b.
c.
d.

What does your practice hope to get out of participating in the project?
What specific outcomes do you hope are achieved?
How different would the experience for patients or providers look?
What more general changes for the practice beyond UI care do you hope for?

WRAP UP
11) Do you have any else you would like to share about the [Grant project name] project or your
participation in it that we haven’t discussed?
Thank you again for talking with us about [Grant project name] and your experiences and expectations
as the project begins. We look forward to aggregating what we learn from all the practices we talk with
to provide early insights that can help [Grant project name] and others understand how to help primary
care practices implement improved UI care for women.

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