Conceptualising interventions to enhance spread in complex systems: a multi-site comprehensive medication review case study
File(s)
Published online version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: Advancing the description and conceptualisation of interventions in complex systems is necessary to support spread, evaluation, attribution and reproducibility. Improvement teams can provide unique insight into how interventions are operationalised in practice. Capturing this ‘insider knowledge’ has the potential to enhance intervention descriptions.
Objectives: This exploratory study investigated the spread of a comprehensive medication review (CMR) intervention to (1) describe the work required from the improvement team perspective, (2) identify what stays the same and what changes between the different sites and why, and (3) critically appraise the ‘hard core’ and ‘soft periphery’ (HC/SP) construct as a way of conceptualising interventions.
Design: A prospective case study of a CMR initiative across five sites. Data collection included: observations, document analysis and semistructured interviews. A facilitated workshop triangulated findings and measured perceived effort invested in activities. A qualitative database was developed to conduct thematic analysis.
Results: Sites identified 16 intervention components. All were considered essential due to their interdependency. The function of components remained the same, but adaptations were made between and within sites. Components were categorised under four ‘spheres of operation’: Accessibility of evidence base; Process of enactment; Dependent processes and Dependent sociocultural issues. Participants reported most effort was invested on ‘dependent sociocultural issues’. None of the existing HC/SP definitions fit well with the empirical data, with inconsistent classifications of components as HC or SP.
Conclusions: This study advances the conceptualisation of interventions by explicitly considering how evidence-based practices are operationalised in complex systems. We propose a new conceptualisation of ‘interventions-in-systems’ which describes intervention components in relation to their: proximity to the evidence base; component interdependence; component function; component adaptation and effort.
Objectives: This exploratory study investigated the spread of a comprehensive medication review (CMR) intervention to (1) describe the work required from the improvement team perspective, (2) identify what stays the same and what changes between the different sites and why, and (3) critically appraise the ‘hard core’ and ‘soft periphery’ (HC/SP) construct as a way of conceptualising interventions.
Design: A prospective case study of a CMR initiative across five sites. Data collection included: observations, document analysis and semistructured interviews. A facilitated workshop triangulated findings and measured perceived effort invested in activities. A qualitative database was developed to conduct thematic analysis.
Results: Sites identified 16 intervention components. All were considered essential due to their interdependency. The function of components remained the same, but adaptations were made between and within sites. Components were categorised under four ‘spheres of operation’: Accessibility of evidence base; Process of enactment; Dependent processes and Dependent sociocultural issues. Participants reported most effort was invested on ‘dependent sociocultural issues’. None of the existing HC/SP definitions fit well with the empirical data, with inconsistent classifications of components as HC or SP.
Conclusions: This study advances the conceptualisation of interventions by explicitly considering how evidence-based practices are operationalised in complex systems. We propose a new conceptualisation of ‘interventions-in-systems’ which describes intervention components in relation to their: proximity to the evidence base; component interdependence; component function; component adaptation and effort.
Date Issued
2021-05-14
Date Acceptance
2021-04-06
Citation
BMJ Quality & Safety, 2021, 31 (1)
ISSN
2044-5415
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Quality & Safety
Volume
31
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/31/1/31
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Health Care Sciences & Services
Health Policy & Services
complexity
healthcare quality improvement
implementation science
collaborative
breakthrough groups
clinical practice guidelines
HEALTH-SERVICES
SCALING-UP
PREVENTION
LESSONS
SCIENCE
SUSTAINABILITY
IMPLEMENTATION
OPPORTUNITIES
IMPROVEMENTS
DIFFUSION
breakthrough groups
clinical practice guidelines
collaborative
complexity
healthcare quality improvement
implementation science
1103 Clinical Sciences
1117 Public Health and Health Services
1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy
Health Policy & Services
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2021-05-14