Site enrollment

The site performance metrics sponsors actually track

By TrialNotice · Updated
Site performance dashboard with enrollment and screen failure charts displayed on a monitor in a research office
Short answerSponsors track enrollment against target, time from activation to first patient, screen failure rate, dropout rate, and data quality measures such as query resolution and protocol deviations. Enrollment and screen failure weigh most in future site selection, and increasingly this history is shared across sponsors through performance data platforms.

Which metrics matter most?

MetricIndustry benchmark
Enrollment against target52% of sites meet or exceed, 37% under enroll, 11% enroll none
Screen failure rate36.3% average, 57% in CNS trials
Dropout rate19.1% average
Startup cycle time31.4 weeks, site identification to startup completion
Site initiation to first patient inThe most variable startup interval

Sources: enrollment (Tufts CSDD), screen failure and dropout (Tufts CSDD), startup (Tufts CSDD), first patient in variability (Applied Clinical Trials).

What about data quality?

Sponsors also watch query resolution time, protocol deviations, and data entry timeliness. These rarely win a site a study on their own, but poor numbers can lose one.

Does a site's history follow it?

Increasingly, yes. Sponsors share site level data such as site open dates, first and last patient enrolled dates, and patients enrolled, and researchers have used that data to build models that rank sites by expected recruitment (PLOS One). Your performance on one sponsor's study can shape another sponsor's shortlist.

How do referrals move these metrics?

  • Enrollment against target: referrals add a patient source beyond your records.
  • Screen failure: referring physicians already know diagnosis, medications, and history, so patients arrive closer to eligible.
  • Time to first patient: physicians briefed during startup can refer at activation.

How should a site track its own numbers?

Keep a simple dashboard per study: weekly screens and randomizations against target, screen failure reasons by patient source, days from site initiation to first patient, and dropouts. Review it weekly, and share it with your CRA before they ask. See how sites win more studies.

Get your study in front of the right local physicians

TrialNotice builds a physician referral pipeline around one active study. We identify relevant local physicians within driving distance of your site, send study aligned direct mail, follow up by email and LinkedIn, track engagement with recipient level QR codes, and route warm responses into your site team's workflow.

Talk to TrialNotice

Sources

  1. Tufts CSDD, patient recruitment and retention practices study (Jan 2013), via Fierce Biotech
  2. Applied Clinical Trials, "Can Recruitment and Retention Get Any Worse?" (Tufts CSDD screen failure study)
  3. Tufts CSDD, first comprehensive clinical site initiation benchmark (2018), via GlobeNewswire
  4. Applied Clinical Trials, "New Benchmarks for Trial Initiation Activities" (Tufts CSDD)
  5. "Enhancing site selection strategies in clinical trial recruitment using real world data modeling," PLOS One

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