The research and evaluation (R & E) initiative is authorized by 34 USC 12291(B)(7), which permits OVW to set aside up to three percent of available funds from most OVW programs to conduct…

The University of Illinois was awarded a $449,979 project grant from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women under the OVW Research and Evaluation Program (CFDA 16.026) to evaluate patient experiences with in-person and telehealth sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) care. The University will conduct qualitative interviews with patients who received in-person and tele-SANE care to guide development of a Patient Experience Assessment Tool (PEAT) for ongoing monitoring and improvement by SANE programs. Interview participants will help develop and review the PEAT prior to finalization. This evaluation seeks to improve SANE patient experiences by comparing in-person and tele-SANE experiences and developing a widely adoptable PEAT and support guides. Findings will be shared with practitioners, policymakers, and via academic and media outlets to inform SANE/tele-SANE service expansion from November 2022 to October 2025.

The research and evaluation (R & E) initiative is authorized by 34 USC 12291(B)(7), which permits OVW to set aside up to three percent of available funds from most OVW programs to conduct evaluations of promising practices for combatting domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and to research problems emerging in the field. By generating more knowledge about strategies for serving victims and holding offenders accountable, communities that benefit from violence against women act (VAWA) funding will be better equipped to align their work with practices that are known to be effective, and they will be more capable of building empirical knowledge on the efficacy of new and promising ways of making communities safer and more just. This project with the university of illinois is an outcome evaluation of the patient experience with in-person sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) and telesane (i.e., SANE care provided via telehealth technology) care. Researchers working in partnership with a well-established SANE program will interview patients who received in-person and telehealth care and use interview findings to guide the development and pilot testing a patient experience assessment tool (PEAT) that in-person SANE and telesane programs can use for ongoing monitoring and improvement. Interview participants from the first phase of the project will be involved in the development of the PEAT, the analysis of the pilot findings, and a review of the PEAT before IT is finalized. This project will contribute significantly to in-person SANE and telesane programs' ability to improve their patients' experiences by conducting the first-ever qualitative patient experience interviews with telesane patients, comparing the experiences of in-person SANE and telesane patients, and developing a PEAT and supporting guides that can be widely adopted by programs providing post-assault medical forensic care. Evaluation findings will be shared with state and national practitioners and policymakers to inform the expansion of in-person SANE and telesane services. The final PEAT and supporting documents will be made available for SANE/telesane programs to use freely. Findings will also be shared via practitioner-oriented and media outlets and presented at academic conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.