Feasibility questionnaire response is one of the highest-leverage, lowest-cost opportunities for a clinical research site to improve its study acquisition rate. CROs evaluate feasibility responses on three dimensions: accuracy of enrollment projections, quality of supporting evidence, and response speed. Sites that respond within 48 hours with data-supported projections — rather than in two weeks with estimates — measurably outperform in selection outcomes.
What Response Speed Signals
A site that returns a completed feasibility questionnaire within 48 hours signals organizational capacity. A site that takes two weeks signals one of two things: the coordinator is too busy to prioritize business development, or the site does not have the data infrastructure to answer the questions quickly. Neither is a positive selection signal. CROs track response time as an informal operational quality indicator.
What Data-Supported Projections Require
Answering "how many patients do you expect to enroll per month?" with a credible number requires having the underlying data available: a physician contact count for the relevant therapeutic area in the site's geographic area, an active outreach pipeline showing which physicians have been contacted and how many are actively referring, and a historical conversion rate from physician contact to enrolled patient from previous studies. Sites that have this data — stored in an enrollment tracking system rather than in the PI's memory — can answer feasibility questions in minutes rather than days.
Coordinator Capacity Questions
The second most common feasibility question is about coordinator capacity: how many concurrent studies is the site currently running and what is the available coordinator bandwidth? Sites with real-time workload tracking — a spreadsheet or CRM dashboard showing active studies, current coordinator allocation, and projected capacity — answer this question with data. Sites without it answer it with a guess that frequently turns out to be wrong when the study activates and enrollment pressure hits simultaneously with other study obligations.
The Infrastructure Investment
Building the data infrastructure that enables fast, credible feasibility responses does not require enterprise CTMS licensing. It requires: a structured enrollment tracking system, a physician outreach activity log, a coordinator capacity tracker, and a historical performance database by therapeutic area. Each of these can be built in Google Sheets or a CRM with a few hours of initial setup. The return on that investment is visible in the first competitive feasibility response it enables.