Enhancing Outpatient Clinic Recruitment: A Quality Improvement Strategy for a Prospective Research Study

To improve study recruitment by increasing the number of eligible participants who receive study information during their outpatient clinical care.

Quality improvement study.

Outpatient clinics from July 2024 to January 2025.

Eligible patients across 16 outpatient clinics (N=231, mean age=14.1 ± 2.0 y, women=46%, White=74%).

Using quality improvement methodology, the team identified barriers and key drivers for recruitment from clinics. The initial interventions included designating and engaging a clinical staff member in each clinic to distribute study information (recruitment champion), notifying them of potentially eligible patients, tracking progress, and incentivizing recruitment with small rewards. Recruitment was tracked and reviewed monthly to assess progress and identify interventions for ongoing iterations.

Primary: Percentage of eligible patients who received study information during their clinic visit. Secondary: Study enrollment rates.

During this period, 58.9% of eligible patients received study information during their clinic visits (baseline rate from prior similar study=32.6%). Enrollment from clinic contact averaged 59% (baseline rate from prior similar study=21.8%). Chi-square test indicated a significantly higher proportion of patients received information about the study from clinic staff compared with the prior similar study (χ²=36.06, P<.001), and those receiving information about the study in clinic corresponded with a higher rate of enrollment compared with the group that did not receive information in clinic (χ²=21.33, P<.001).

This project demonstrates the successful application of quality improvement methodology toward optimizing clinical recruitment. Approaches used in this study can potentially be generalized to other outpatient clinical populations and research studies.