Patient Feedback Effectiveness Study

January 18, 2012 updated by: Paul Crits-Christoph, University of Pennsylvania
The purpose of the study is to determine if a semi-automated quality improvement system that provides addiction counselors with feedback on their average treatment satisfaction and therapeutic alliance (as rated by patients currently in treatment) is superior to no feedback in 32 community-based outpatient addiction treatment clinics.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Quality improvement (Ql) methods are a cornerstone of business and healthcare management throughout the United States yet there have been few studies of Ql interventions in addiction treatment settings. The proposed study tests the effectiveness of one Ql system - Patient Feedback (PF) - at increasing outpatient group therapy attendance and self-reported abstinence. The feasibility and acceptability of PF was established in a six-site study conducted within the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network. In the proposed study, 32 community-based outpatient treatment programs with approximately 250 clinicians will be randomly assigned to PF, or usual clinic practices. In the PF condition, every week fro 12 weeks clinic patients are invited to complete a 12-item, self-administered survey in which they rate therapeutic alliance and treatment satisfaction, and report past week substance use. These anonymous surveys are faxed by clinic staff to a University of Pennsylvania data center where a custom software application converts the surveys into feedback reports and posts them to a password protected website. Clinicians can access their caseload feedback reports and aggregated reports for the whole clinic; supervisors can only access the aggregated clinic reports. On a monthly basis staff meet as a team to review the feedback reports and develop Ql plans intended to yield improvements in select Ql indicators. The PF website and the monthly PF e-newsletter provide social recognition, clinical resources, and a virtual community for participating clinicians. After 12 weeks, participants in both conditions complete follow-up measures and then both groups are given open access to PF for 12 additional months. During "sustainability phase" staff usage of the PF website is monitored. Alternate versions of the PF Survey are introduced during the sustainability study, including one that monitors HIV risk behavior. The rapid processing of surveys enables near real time feedback to clinic staff. Organizations may share their feedback reports with funding sources, regulatory agencies, policy makers, and other stakeholders. This centralized, semi-automated feedback system eases fulfillment of accreditation requirements and as such, reduces the cost of clinic operations.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

118

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10010
        • New York University School of Medicine
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • program: adult, outpatient, non-methadone maintenance substance abuse treatment programs
  • clinician: must be leading at least one weekly group with minimum of 5 patients
  • must be working at least 20% time at facility

Exclusion Criteria:

  • clinics with fewer than 5 clinicians who conduct weekly group counseling
  • clinics in which fewer than 50% of clinicians agree to participate

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Feedback to counselors
substance abuse counselors received feedback reports on their average performance and on the average performance of the clinic as a whole. Feedback reports contained information on average alliance, treatment satisfaction, and drug/alcohol use.
Behavioral: Other: quality improvement feedback system
Surveys patients regarding treatment experiences.
Behavioral: Patient Feedback
Weekly feedback reports provided to counselors
No Intervention: Treatment as Usual
No feedback reports were provided in this arm.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
clinician average weekly caseload patient-rated therapeutic alliance
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Collaborators

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Paul Crits-Christoph, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

November 1, 2006

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2008

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 24, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 24, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

November 25, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 20, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 18, 2012

Last Verified

January 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R01DA020799 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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