title: Assessing feasibility and acceptability of study procedures: getting ready for implementation of national stroke guidelines in out-patient health care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Even though Swedish national guidelines for stroke care (SNGSC) have been accessible for nearly a decade access to stroke rehabilitation in out-patient health care vary considerably. In order to aid future interventions studies for implementation of SNGSC, this study assessed the feasibility and acceptability of study procedures including analysis of the context in out-patient health care settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The feasibility and acceptability of recruitment, observations and interviews with managers, staff and patients were assessed, as well as the feasibility of surveying health care records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To identify patients from the the hospitals was feasible but not from out-patient care where a need to relieve clinical staff of the recruitment process was identified. Assessing adherence to guidelines and standardized evaluations of patient outcomes through health care records was found to be feasible and suitable assessment tools to evaluate patient outcome were identified. Interviews were found to be a feasible and acceptable tool to survey the context of the health care setting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this feasibility study a variety of qualitative and quantitative data collection procedures and measures were tested. The results indicate what can be used as a set of feasible and acceptable data collection procedures and suitable measures for studying implementation of stroke guidelines in an out-patient health care context.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nursing, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. susanne.palmcrantz@ki.se.|Department of Clinical Sciences Danderyd Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. susanne.palmcrantz@ki.se.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Palmcrantz
authors.affiliation: Division of Nursing, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. malin.tistad@ki.se.|School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden. malin.tistad@ki.se.
authors.forename: Malin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tistad
authors.affiliation: Division of Nursing, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. ace@du.se.|School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden. ace@du.se.
authors.forename: Ann Catrine
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Eldh
authors.affiliation: Division of Physiotherapy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. lotta.holmqvist@ki.se.|Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. lotta.holmqvist@ki.se.|Department of Physical Therapy, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. lotta.holmqvist@ki.se.
authors.forename: Lotta Widén
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Holmqvist
authors.affiliation: School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden. aeh@du.se.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ehrenberg
authors.affiliation: International Health Systems Research, Departments of Learning, Informatics, Management, Ethics and Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. goran.tomson@ki.se.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tomson
authors.affiliation: Division of Physiotherapy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. christina.b.olsson@sll.se.|Mörby Academic Primary Healthcare Center, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden. christina.b.olsson@sll.se.
authors.forename: Christina B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Olsson
authors.affiliation: Division of Nursing, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. lwa@du.se.|School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden. lwa@du.se.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wallin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000379:methods*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011364:Professional Practice; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D016896:Treatment Outcome