In this section we provide information on the 8 assessment instruments that focus on the delivery of healthcare services.  Six of the instruments (the Confidential Questionnaire- Evaluating SANE Programmes; the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region’s Clinic Interview and Observation Guide; the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region’s STI/HIV Self-Assessment Module; the Management of Rape Victims Questionnaire; the Standardized Interview Questionnaires and Facilities Checklist; and the Telephone Interview Survey) collect a wide range of information concerning healthcare services that are available to survivors of sexual violence (e.g., information concerning the clinic setting, protocols, procedures, etc.), along with descriptive information concerning the client population and clinician training/education.  The other 2 assessment instruments (the Forensic and Medical Care Following Sexual Assault Service Education Program Evaluation Qualitative Interview; and the Quality of Care Composite Score) are more narrowly focused, asking clinicians about the care that they provide (or intend to provide), rather than focusing on the entire healthcare setting’s resources.

Authors use a variety of terms to refer to the rape victims/survivors participating in their studies, yet few define them.  Reference is made to “rape victims” (Azikiwe, Wright, Cheng et al., 2005), “rape survivors” (Christofides, Jewkes, Webster et al., 2005), “sexual assault survivors” (Parekh, Currie, and Brown, 2005), and rape victims following sexual assault (Rosenberg, DeMunter, and Liu, 2005).  Guedes, Bott and Cuca (2002) refer to “gender-based violence victims” and define GBV as “the physical, sexual or emotional abuse of women by an intimate partner, as well as sexual violence of any kind, including a history of childhood sexual abuse”.  As a result, the screening questions that they include refer to women “ever experiencing GBV”. Azikiwe, Wright, Cheng et al. (2005) do not clarify whether the Management of Rape Victims Questionnaire differentiates among types of treatment for victims/survivors who have experienced different forms of sexual violence or for victims/survivors at different time periods of their recovery process.  This is also true of the Quality of Care Composite Score, the Confidential Questionnaire-Evaluating SANE Programs, the Forensic and Medical Care Interview and the Telephone Interview Survey.  All of the instruments assume implicitly that rape or sexual assault victims/survivors are in need of acute care, at least within 24-hours post-assault.

Although these 8 service delivery assessment instruments vary in format, all of them include a component in which information is provided by healthcare providers/programme directors.  Three were designed to be self-administered, but the others are administered via an interview approach, either in person or by telephone.  All of the instruments are available in English and two are available in Spanish.  Little information is available concerning the time it takes to administer these instruments, the method of scoring the instruments, or the psychometric properties of the instruments.