Carolyn M Wallace*† and Marcia W Legro† Address: Health Services Research & Development, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington, USA Email: Carolyn M Wallace* - ; Marcia W Legro - mwlegro@ * Corresponding author †Equal contributors Published: 22 April 2008 Implementation Science 2008, 3:22 doi: Received: 18 August 2006 Accepted: 22 April 2008 | Implementation Science BioMed Central Research article Open Access Using formative evaluation in an implementation project to increase vaccination rates in high-risk veterans QUERI Series Carolyn M Wallace f and Marcia W Legrot Address Health Services Research Development VA Puget Sound Health Care System Seattle Washington USA Email Carolyn M Wallace - Marcia W Legro - mwlegro@ Corresponding author tEqual contributors Published 22 April 2008 Received 18 August 2006 Implementation Science 2008 3 22 doi 1748-5908-3-22 Accepted 22 April 2008 This article is available from http content 3 1 22 2008 Wallace and Legro licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background Implementation of research into practice in health care systems is a challenging and often unsuccessful endeavor. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs VA Quality Enhancement Research Initiative QUERI research teams include formative evaluations FE in their action-oriented VA implementation projects to identify critical information about the processes of implementation that can guide adjustments to project activities in order to better meet project goals. This article describes the development and use of FE in an action-oriented implementation research project. Methods This two-year action-oriented implementation research project was conducted at 23 VA Spinal Cord Injury SCI Centers and targeted patients staff and the system of care such as administration and information technology. Data for FE were collected by electronic and paper surveys semi-structured and open-ended interviews notes during conference calls and exchange of e-mail messages. Specific questions were .
