Phase 1: Convene Team Members and Determine Assessment Activities

Why Phase 1 matters

As a recipient of CDC's Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP), you must work with health system and clinic partners to conduct assessments and develop relevant implementation plans for each evidence-based intervention (EBI). You may already be working with health system and clinic leadership, providers, and staff members. If so, you will need to determine who will contribute to the needs assessment and in what ways. Activities are listed sequentially in an order that was logical for most CRCCP recipients.

In this phase of the Field Guide for Assessing Readiness to Implement Evidence-Based Cancer Screening Interventions, you will determine which activities make sense for your team and clinic setting.

Phase 1 activities

Complete these activities to convene a readiness assessment team and determine assessment activities.

1.1 Adapt Phase 1–4 activities checklist for your setting

Download the Field Guide Phases 1–4 Activities Checklist so you can review and adapt tasks and activities for each of the four phases as needed. This checklist will help you establish your team. Work with your team to refine and finalize the activities for your own checklist, which will be the foundation for Phases 2–4 of the readiness assessment process. Tailor the activities to your setting as you plan your readiness assessment.

1.2 Establish your team

The people on your team should have:

• Knowledge about cancer screening tests, clinic workflows, and clinical processes.
• Knowledge about clinic data systems or electronic health records.
• A commitment to support and institutionalize policies and practices that promote cancer screening, including readiness assessment completion. This person may be called a screening champion.
• Experience in assessment, planning, evaluation, and quality assurance or quality improvement.

Types of team members

Recipient and clinic staff involved in the assessment differ by setting. The activities relevant to your setting for each assessment phase should guide your determination of who should be involved in each phase. For example:

• CDC recipient staff involved in the assessment typically include the program manager, quality improvement practice coach, evaluators with data expertise, and content experts. These team members will typically be responsible or accountable across all stages as they develop and administer the readiness assessment and analyze and share data with clinic partners.
• Clinic staff involved in the assessment typically include the medical director, quality improvement specialist, clinic manager, nursing staff, and information technology (IT) staff. They help complete the assessment, analyze and review findings, interpret the results, and develop an implementation plan.
• CDC program consultants are available to provide technical assistance to recipients.

1.3 Convene your team

After you have identified the activities relevant to your setting, bring your team members together. The team can review the goals and requirements of the readiness assessment, agree on activities for each phase, and specify each team member's role.

Responsibility assignment matrix

A responsibility assignment matrix may help you articulate members' level of responsibility. The matrix is based on the Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed (RACI) Framework and has been adapted to conduct readiness assessments for cancer screening interventions. It can be used as a starting point for identifying and bringing together the individuals relevant to conducting readiness assessments in your setting. The matrix may be particularly practical for screening efforts, as it can help all team members understand the screening processes, implementation of evidence-based interventions, and how the team will work with each other to complete each activity. Use the matrix to guide all subsequent phases. Refer to it often and revise as needed throughout the process.

As a team, you will also want to review the overall goals of the CRCCP and the readiness assessment so that all team members understand how the process can help your program contribute to achieving the CRCCP goals. Additional details and program-specific readiness assessment guidance can be found in the CRCCP Manual. Only CRCCP recipients can access the manual.

To finalize the responsibility assignment matrix, we suggest the following process:

1. CDC recipient staff agree on activities for Phases 2–4.
2. CDC recipient staff meet with clinic leadership to:
   1. Review the proposed activities.
   2. Decide where revisions may be needed on the Phase 1–4 Activities Checklist.
   3. Define recipient and clinic team member roles for each activity.

Use the responsibility assignment matrix to assign team members to be responsible for, accountable for, consulted on, or informed about decisions or activities.

Responsibility assignment matrix role definitions

• Responsible: Team members who complete activities. Different team members can be assigned different responsibility for different activities.
• Accountable: Team member who ensures activities are completed. This person delegates activities, reviews the team's work, and signs off on each activity's completion. The recipient's CRCCP program director will likely serve as the accountable team member.
• Consulted: Team members who provide insight or feedback on activities.
• Informed: Team members who need progress updates. They are generally not directly involved in completing activities.

Phase 1 frequently asked questions

Who should I consider inviting to be a member of the readiness assessment team?

Activity 1.2 provides information about forming a readiness assessment team. Recipient staff and other experts typically include the program manager, quality improvement practice coach, external evaluators with data expertise, and content experts. They typically develop and administer the readiness assessment, analyze findings, and hold meetings to share and interpret data with clinic partners.

Clinic staff involved in the assessment typically include the medical director, quality improvement specialist, clinic manager, nursing staff, and IT staff. They help complete the assessment, review findings, interpret the results, and work with the recipient to develop an implementation plan.

CDC program consultants are available to provide technical assistance to recipients.

What are screening champions and why are they important?

A screening champion supports, encourages, and drives practices that promote cancer screening. Screening champions help overcome organizational indifference or resistance to efforts to improve screening rates. The presence of screening champions is associated with improvements in colorectal cancer screening rates in primary care clinics. Learn more in the article Increasing colorectal cancer screening in health care systems using evidence-based interventions.