PY21 PCF PECS Telephone Interview Recording Submission
folder_openOther Announcementscalendar_todayPosted September 20, 2021

For PY21, PCF PECS vendors will not be required to submit telephone interviewer recorded files as described in the Quality Assurance Guidelines, section 10.5. Instead, PCF PECS staff will schedule remote one-hour interviewer monitoring sessions with each vendor’s CATI operations team. Vendors will also be required to submit documentation confirming they have met the required 10% monitoring goal over the course of the PCF PECS data collection.

Remote One-Hour Interviewer Monitoring Sessions

PCF PECS staff will schedule remote one-hour interviewer monitoring sessions with each vendor’s CATI operations team. If a PCF PECS vendor uses more than one subcontractor to conduct the CATI follow-up, we will conduct a monitoring session with each CATI subcontractor. These sessions may take place at any point during the telephone follow-up period.

During the monitoring sessions, the PCF PECS team anticipates listening to a variety of call types including both interviews and non-interviews. As originally planned for the evaluation of the recorded interviews, the following criteria will be used for evaluation:

• Politeness to the respondent
• Voice clarity
• Proper use of FAQs to answer respondent questions
• Accuracy in reading questions
• Appropriate speed
• Adherence to PCF PECS procedures
• Correct coding of responses

A PCF PECS Interviewer Monitoring form will be available on the PECS website. If a vendor’s current monitoring form includes the above items, the vendor may submit that instead. If using a vendor-specific form, a scoring key must be included.

The PCF PECS team will raise any issues of unsatisfactory interviewer performance with the vendor. Depending on the severity of the issue, coaching, additional training, increased monitoring, and submitting copies of call recordings may be advised. If necessary, a Corrective Action Plan will be put in place for the vendor.

Documentation of Monitoring

Following the close of data collection on December 21, 2021, vendors will also be required to submit documentation confirming they have met the required 10% monitoring goal over the course of the PCF PECS data collection. To reduce the reporting burden on the vendors, we recommend that vendors submit only one of the following items as their monitoring documentation: 

• Individual monitoring sheets documenting monitoring throughout the field period
  • Interviewers may be identified via name or ID number.
  • Scored monitoring sheets with the same evaluation criteria described above are acceptable.
  • PCF PECS-supplied monitoring forms as supplied on the PECS website.
• Monitoring logs
  • Logs should include a list of interviewers monitored each week with a monitoring score.
  • The monitoring log can be electronic (e.g., MS Excel) or a scanned version of a handwritten log kept by the vendor.
• Other system-generated reports from the vendor that provides documentation of their monitoring activities with an indication of percent of calls monitored.

Vendors will be able to submit all interviewer monitoring documentation through the PCF PECS website, similar to the QAP submission process. To not interfere with vendors’ preparation of the final survey data (due to RTI by January 18, 2022), we ask vendors to provide their PY21 monitoring documentation by January 31, 2022. 

Upon receipt of each vendor’s documentation, the PCF PECS team will review the documentation to determine if they have met the monitoring requirements for the PCF PECS project. We will provide feedback to each vendor regarding their monitoring process and changes needed to their process or QAP. If necessary, a Corrective Action Plan will be put in place to address any deficiencies in the vendor’s monitoring process.

Vendors with questions should contact the PCF PECS Team via e-mail at pcfpecs@rti.org or call 1-833-997-2715.