Attachment E -- Recruitment Letter

DATE

Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. (Name):

As you know, the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, is conducting a study of the implementation of patient flow improvement strategies at your organization. Because of your involvement with this project, we would like to schedule an in-person interview with you to discuss the following topics:

• Selection of the patient flow strategies

• Implementation of the patient flow improvement strategies

• Facilitators and barriers to implementation

• Spread and sustainability of the strategies

• Time and expenses associated with planning and implementing the strategies

We anticipate that the interview will last no more than 60 minutes. All information gathered during the interview will be kept strictly confidential; no individual persons will be identified in any reports or publications. However, your responses will be aggregated with others from your organization, and we will report a summary of findings.

We believe that the information gleaned from these interviews will enhance understanding of contextual facilitators or barriers that other hospitals might encounter in trying to implement tools to improve patient flow. The findings will yield important insights regarding organizational, structural, resource, staffing, and cost factors that may affect the adoption, implementation and results of patient flow improvement strategies across diverse ED settings.

Thank you for your time. We know that you are asked to participate in a number of studies and projects every year, and we know you must be selective in the interest of time and resources. I will follow up by telephone to request a date and time for an interview.

Sincerely,

Megan McHugh, Ph.D.

Director, Research

Health Research & Educational Trust