Recruitment Projects

PURPOSE

This SOP describes procedures to follow when HIC Services provides participant recruitment support for a research project. 

SCOPE

This SOP covers;

• Specifying project requirements 

• Identifying and managing participant contact lists 

• Validating participant lists 

• Preparing and sending email or postal mailings 

RESPONSIBILITIES

PROCEDURE

Open

1. Specifying Project Requirements

   • Project requirement details are gathered and agreed on. Details will include:

     • Project title.

     • A specification of how mailing targets will be identified.  

     • A specification of what data HIC or the project team will be processing for the project and how the project will potentially fit within the HIC recruitment tracker system. 

     • A specification of how the mailing list cohort will be validated. 

     • Frequency of mailings – e.g. reminder letters or different mailings to different study groups. 

     • Format of mailings.  

     • A specification of whether replies will come back to HIC, e.g. questionnaires for data entry or responses for tracking through the HIC tracker. 

     • A specification of what approvals will need to be obtained before HIC work can commence.

2. Identifying and Managing Patient Contact Lists

   • The cohort selection method will be agreed with the Project Team.

   • Mailing cohorts identified from HIC-held Datasets will first be screened by the patient’s GP practice or NHS clinic, if applicable. Project Team will not see any identifiable data until the patient has given consent to being contacted by the Project Team.  

   • Patient-identifiable data will be managed by HIC within secure NHS-network areas, including sending and receiving patient lists to/from Clinics and GP Practices. 

   • Lists of eligible patients may alternatively be supplied directly to HIC from an external NHS-approved source but will be checked as per the validation process below. 

   • Data source-specific procedures will be agreed and documented for collaborative HIC recruitment mailing support. The procedures will include cohort validation methods and systems for confirming that appropriate governance approval has been obtained for each project being supported by the data source and requiring HIC involvement. 

3. Validating Patient Lists

   • All cohorts created by HIC will be checked for accuracy either internally by HIC Data Analysts or by an external process agreed with HIC.

   • Where cohorts are provided to HIC from external sources the “Cohort List Validation Confirmation” form will be completed and provided with the supplied cohort. 

4. Preparing Mailing Templates

   • Postal mailing packs will be created using the approved documentation provided by the Project Team.

   • Email templates will be created and stored to ensure a standardised approach to reduce errors, using agreed text/images and merge fields for each project/mailing batch.

   • Both templates will be test-merged and sent to the Project Team contact for sign-off. 

5. Merging Template with Mailing Cohort

   • When mailing is ready to send the cohort death checks are completed if applicable and the cohort is securely uploaded to the external mailing provider.

   • Mailing provider will validate the addresses against the Royal Mail system and flag any concerns e.g., duplicates and invalid addresses.

6. Quality Checking the Letter Mailing Batch

   • Mailing is reviewed by HIC Mailing Support.

7. Sending Mailing Batch

   • HIC Mailing Support requests purchase order number which is added to the mailing order prior to sending batch.

   • Once the email template has been checked and ready for sending the batch dates/times for sending are added to the records. Any issues with sending (e.g. invalid email address) are logged against the record and reviewed by Process Manager. 

8. Mailing Responses

   • Letter responses will be returned through the HIC freepost address, if required for the study. These responses (positive and negative) will be recorded on the HIC Recruitment Tracker with only positive responses transferring to the Project Team. 

APPLICABLE REFERENCES

• Data Security

• Data Access Approvals

• Staff Confidentiality Agreement 

• Legal and Governance Policy

• For Definitions see ISMS Glossary 

DOCUMENT CONTROLS