One of the first factors that needs to be considered is whether personnel are available at the clinical site(s) to perform the tasks needed to collect, administer, and analyze surveys (Table 1). The clinical site needs to determine who can perform the additional activities to administer and collect SF-36 data, given the other duties and responsibilities of the office personnel. Various personnel, such as medical assistants, medical students, office managers, nurses, or pharmacists, might be available to perform these duties.

When choosing who will administer the SF-36, the candidate’s skills, expertise, and competing responsibilities should be considered. If a site does not have personnel available, then fax, computer-based, or Internet-based systems might be preferable because these systems require less personnel time to administer, as compared to the traditional paper-and-pencil method. In addition, the technology-based methods do not require on-site experts to analyze and report the data. For example, to decrease staff burden, one health care organization switched from the traditional scannable method for SF-36 administration to the computer-based system. canada viagra online

Table 1 Factors That Need to be Considered

IS THERE ACCESS TO NECESSARY EQUIPMENT?

For the traditional paper-and-pencil administration, patients complete scannable forms. An optical scanner is needed to read the surveys and report the raw questionnaire data. Therefore, the second factor that needs to be considered is whether the clinical sites have access to equipment such as optical scanners. If an optical scanner is available within the organization, then the traditional paper-and-pencil approach might be appropriate. However, if a scanner is not available, than sites might need to consider fax-based scoring, computer touch-screens, or the Internet-based approach for SF-36 administration.

Although an optical scanner is not necessary for the fax, computer-based, and Internet-based approaches, other specialized equipment is still needed. The fax-based scoring approach requires a fax machine to send and receive SF-36 information, whereas the computer touch-screen method needs a computer solely dedicated to collecting, storing, analyzing, and reporting SF-36 data. In addition, the Internet-based approach needs the medical office and/or the patient to have a computer with Internet access. Therefore, the health care organization needs to consider whether this equipment is available at the practice sites in order to determine which method would be best to implement. online pharmacy without a prescription

WILL RESULTS BE USED AT THE TIME OF VISIT?

The third factor to consider is whether the health care organization and providers would like to have patients’ SF-36 data available to review and address at the time of visit. Information obtained from SF-36 results could lead the clinician to modify patient care plans, thereby possibly improving the quality of care provided.

The traditional method requires that the questionnaires be scanned and then analyzed for results. Depending on the personnel expertise and equipment availability, it could take days to months to receive the SF-36 scoring results. If the health care organization wants patients’ SF-36 results to be reviewed during the office visit, an alternative approach is needed that provides these results almost instantaneously. Fax, computer touch-screen, and the Internet methods can provide results quickly. Therefore, these methods might be more suitable for the practice sites. One health care organization was using scannable SF-36 forms for collecting patients’ HRQoL, but found that it needed to have data and analyses available on demand. Therefore, the organization implemented the computer-based system for SF-36 administration.