title: Development and pilot of a framework to evaluate reproductive health call centre services: experience of Marie Stopes international.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Call centres can improve the effectiveness of health services by helping reduce access barriers associated with stigma and geography. This project aimed to develop and pilot a standardised evaluation framework to assess Marie Stopes International reproductive health call centres.
  
  
  METHODS
  Consultations were held with staff from the 14 existing international call centres to gauge current monitoring and evaluation processes, identify gaps, and establish evaluation needs. The draft framework was then piloted in the Marie Stopes Mexico call centre using client and provider surveys, mystery callers and a review of call centre records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A flexible framework was developed to allow call centres to measure the effectiveness of services offered. Nineteen indicators were developed to assess access, equity, quality and efficiency. The pilot found pre-defined ranges for indicators of access were not appropriate for a high-functioning call centre that was already achieving nearly 100% compliance. Several indicators could not be measured due to a lack of routine data collection systems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A standardised evaluation framework will allow comparisons over time and between call centres in different countries. Future assessments could be improved by establishing routine, reliable data collection systems prior to framework implementation. This is one of the first attempts to standardise the evaluation of a reproductive health call centre and establishes a method by which they can be monitored, and thus improved, over time.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia. pallavi65@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Pallavi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yagnik
authors.affiliation: Marie Stopes International, London, UK. judy.gold@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia. stoove@burnet.edu.au.|Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. stoove@burnet.edu.au.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stoove
authors.affiliation: Marie Stopes International, London, UK. barbara.reichwein@mariestopes.org.uk.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reichwein
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia. carolinevg@burnet.edu.au.|Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. carolinevg@burnet.edu.au.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: van Gemert
authors.affiliation: Marie Stopes International, London, UK. nickcorby@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Corby
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia. lim@burnet.edu.au.|Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. lim@burnet.edu.au.|Burnet Institute, 85 Commercial Rd, Melbourne, 3004, Australia. lim@burnet.edu.au.
authors.forename: Megan S C
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008800:Mexico; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D034121:Reproductive Health Services; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires