FAQs - Clinician Survey

List of Questions for Clinicians and Front-Line Staff

1. I’m a supervisor or do other administrative work. Can I still participate?

2. I’m a receptionist or administrative assistant. Can I still participate?

3. I don’t work full-time at this agency. Can I still participate?

4. How long does the survey take?

5. Do I get paid for participating?

6. I don’t know anything about the "incentivized contract" with SAMHS.

7. Do I have to do the survey online?

8. Who will see my responses?

9. Will anyone know if I participate?

10. Are there more opportunities for me to participate?

11. What are you doing with the information?

12. Where can I find more information?

13. Who can I contact if I have questions about this project?

Questions with Answers

1. I’m a supervisor or do other administrative work. Can I still participate?

   As long as you have direct contact with clients, we are interested in your thoughts. That is, if you do any clinical work, or if you interact with clients at the front desk or in other ways, we would like for you to participate. If you do supervision or administrative work without any patient contact, we recognize that your thoughts about quality are also important, but we cannot include you at this time.

2. I’m a receptionist or administrative assistant. Can I still participate?

   As long as you have direct contact with clients, we are interested in your thoughts. If you interact with clients at the front desk or in other ways, we would like for you to participate. If you do not have any patient contact, we recognize that your thoughts about quality are also important, but we cannot include you at this time.

3. I don’t work full-time at this agency. Can I still participate?

   As long as you have direct contact with clients, we are interested in your thoughts.

4. How long does the survey take?

   About 15 minutes.

5. Do I get paid for participating?

   You will get a $10 gift card as a thank you for participating. Please be sure to provide your name and address at the end of the survey so we can send the card. This information will be recorded separately from your survey responses.

6. I don’t know anything about the “incentivized contract” with SAMHS.

   That’s OK. You may not have been at Maine outpatient agency at the time it started, or you may not be at an agency that has an incentivized contract, or you may just not know about it. We are still interested in your thoughts about approaches to quality within your agency. It is very helpful for us to learn from you whether or not you know about this piece.

7. Do I have to do the survey online?

   We designed the survey to be very simple online. However, if you want to participate and aren’t able to complete it online, please contact Maureen Stewart, the project manager, at 781-736-3717 or mstewart@brandeis.edu, and she can send you a paper version.

8. Who will see my responses?

   Only the Brandeis research team will see your responses. No-one at your agency or SAMHS will see individual data. Further, your responses will only have an ID number, not your name, so they cannot be identified as yours.

9. Will anyone know if I participate?

   Only the Brandeis research team will know who participated. We will not share that information with your agency, SAMHS or anywhere else. Your program director may have shared the invitation with you directly, but whether you agree to do the survey is not known to them. If you are concerned about who knows, we recommend that you use a non-work computer to complete the survey, as an added layer of protection.

10. Are there more opportunities for me to participate?

    Some agencies, that have an incentivized contract with SAMHS, will be invited to participate in the next phase of the study. That phase includes additional program director interviews and surveys of clinicians and front-line staff, and the possibility of participating in a randomized test of incentives paid directly to clinicians and front-line staff. Please see our study FAQ for more information. If you would like to give input into the design of the second phase, please contact Maureen Stewart, the project manager, at mstewart@brandeis.edu or 781-736-3717.

11. What are you doing with the information?

    This survey is part of a larger study on quality of care in Maine’s outpatient and intensive outpatient addiction treatment system. We will combine your responses with others from across the state to understand how clinicians and front-line staff view quality. Further, we will compare these responses to what we collected from program directors, to see what common themes or different themes arise. By sharing this information in the aggregate with SAMHS, program directors, and clinicians/front-line staff, we hope to offer a broader toolbox as you work to improve quality of care for your clients.

12. Where can I find more information?

    Our website includes descriptions and an FAQ for the broader study. You may also feel free to contact Maureen Stewart, the project manager at mstewart@brandeis.edu, 781-736-3717 or Sharon Reif, the principal investigator for more information at any time.

13. Who can I contact if I have questions about this project?

    Stacey Chandler at SAMHS, stacey.chandler@maine.gov, 207-287-6337
    Maureen Stewart at Brandeis University, mstewart@brandeis.edu, 781-736-3717
    Sharon Reif, Principal Investigator, Brandeis University, reif@brandeis.edu, 781-736-3924
    Brandeis University Institutional Review Board (IRB), irb@brandeis.edu, 781-736-8133

April 25, 2014