• MONAHRQ Consumer End Users Focus Group protocol

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ)

MONAHRQ (My Own Network, Powered by AHRQ)

FOCUS GROUP (Consumer End Users)

Purpose of the Focus Group

The intent of the focus group is to collect, review and analyze data regarding the MONAHRQ software and its utility in high-quality, timely reporting of health services for consumers. The focus group is intended to collect data in order to support AHRQ in better understanding the strengths of MONAHRQ as well as its challenges, its position in the field of comparative quality, cost and resource use information, and how to strengthen MONAHRQ and make it more widely accessible.

Procedures

The evaluation team will conduct four focus groups with consumer End Users. The interviews will take place over a two-week period. The focus groups will be conducted online and in person. Each focus group will comprise of about 6 to 8 participants and last approximately 1 to 1 ½ hours. Participants will be given $50.00 for their participation.

Script from LTG to potential participants:

Dear ________:

Our organization, LTG Associates, Inc., has been retained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, (AHRQ) to conduct an evaluation of the MONAHRQ software, designed to provide comparative health information.

To that end we are organizing a series of focus groups to collect information about needs, expectations, and attitudes towards health information online, and help identify barriers to quality health reporting directed to consumers. Your participation in this focus group would be extremely helpful in our efforts to assess the value and utilization of accurate, comparative health information.

We will be following up this message in a day or two with a telephone call to schedule your participation in an online or in-person focus group. Please take a moment to review your calendar and let us know what time and date would suit you. The focus group will likely take about 60 minutes, and your comments will be kept confidential.

For your participation in the focus group you will receive a stipend of a $50.00 electronic gift card.

The contact number we have on record for you is: _______________. If there is a better number that is best to reach you on, please provide that in a response to this message.

FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS

1. When you need accurate health information for you and/or your family, how do you obtain the desired information?

• Word of mouth

• Mainstream media

• Physician recommendations

• Online

• Other

2. When you look for health information, what specific aspects are you most interested?

   • Health outcomes?

   • Cost?

   • Geographical proximity?

   • All of the above?

3. If you search for health information online, what has been your experience accessing these websites?

• Easy to navigate and find valuable information?

• Easy to navigate but the information provided is difficult to understand?

• Difficult to navigate but provides valuable information?

• Both navigation and reporting are difficult to understand?

4. What version of the MONAHRQ tool are you currently using?

   • Have you used other versions?

   • If yes, how easy or difficult was it to upgrade to the version you are currently using?

5. Can you talk about the experience of using the MONAHRQ tool(s)?

   • How easy or difficult was it to set up, use and maintain?

   • If easy, what were the features that were most useful?

   • If difficult, what made it difficult and how could those difficulties be addressed?

6. Who are the primary and secondary intended audiences for your website?

   • How well do you think the site works for each audience?

   • If either is less than optimal:

     1. Why is it less than optimal?

     2. How could it be improved?

   • How could the MONAHRQ tool support those improvements?

     1. Now?

     2. In future versions?

7. Did/Do you receive technical assistance to build and maintain your MONAHRQ-based website?

   • How helpful has the technical assistance been?

   • How could it be better?

8. In thinking about future versions of the MONAHRQ tool, what would you like to see added or changed to better meet your needs and those of your site’s users?