Search

Abstract Background Sustaining evidence-based practices (EBPs) is crucial to ensuring care quality and addressing health disparities. Approaches to identifying factors related to sustainability are critically needed. One such approach is Matrixed Multiple Case Study (MMCS), which identifies factors and their combinations that influence implementation. We applied MMCS to identify factors related to the sustainability of the evidence-based Collaborative Chronic Care Model (CCM) at nine Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) outpatient mental health clinics, 3–4 years after implementation support had concluded. Methods We conducted a directed content analysis of 30 provider interviews, using 6 CCM elements and 4 Integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) domains as codes. Based on CCM code summaries, we designated each site as high/medium/low sustainability. We used i-PARIHS code summaries to identify relevant factors for each site, the extent of their presence, and the type of influence they had on sustainability (enabling/neutral/hindering/unclear). We organized these data into a sortable matrix and assessed sustainability-related cross-site trends. Results CCM sustainability status was distributed among the sites, with three sites each being high, medium, and low. Twenty-five factors were identified from the i-PARIHS code summaries, of which 3 exhibited strong trends by sustainability status (relevant i-PARIHS domain in square brackets): “Collaborativeness/Teamwork [Recipients],” “Staff/Leadership turnover [Recipients],” and “Having a consistent/strong internal facilitator [Facilitation]” during and after active implementation. At most high-sustainability sites only, (i) “Having a knowledgeable/helpful external facilitator [Facilitation]” was variably present and enabled sustainability when present, while (ii) “Clarity about what CCM comprises [Innovation],” “Interdisciplinary coordination [Recipients],” and “Adequate clinic space for CCM team members [Context]” were somewhat or less present with mixed influences on sustainability. Conclusions MMCS revealed that CCM sustainability in VA outpatient mental health clinics may be related most strongly to provider collaboration, knowledge retention during staff/leadership transitions, and availability of skilled internal facilitators. These findings have informed a subsequent CCM implementation trial that prospectively examines whether enhancing the above-mentioned factors within implementation facilitation improves sustainability. MMCS is a systematic approach to multi-site examination that can be used to investigate sustainability-related factors applicable to other EBPs and across multiple contexts.

Background Sustaining healthcare interventions once they have been implemented is a pivotal public health endeavor. Achieving sustainability requires context-sensitive adaptations to evidence-based practices (EBPs) or the implementation strategies used to ensure their adoption. For replicability of adaptations beyond the specific setting in question, the underlying logic needs to be clearly described, and adaptations themselves need to be plainly documented. The goal of this project was to describe the process by which implementation facilitation was adapted to improve the uptake of clinical care practices that are consistent with the collaborative chronic care model (CCM). Method Quantitative and qualitative data from a prior implementation trial found that CCM-consistent care practices were not fully sustained within outpatient general mental health teams that had received 1 year of implementation facilitation to support uptake. We undertook a multistep consensus process to identify adaptations to implementation facilitation based on these results, with the goal of enhancing the sustainability of CCM-based care in a subsequent trial. The logic for these adaptations, and the resulting adaptations themselves, were documented using two adaptation-oriented implementation frameworks (the iterative decision-making for evaluation of adaptations [IDEA] and the framework for reporting adaptations and modifications to evidence-based implementation strategies [FRAME-IS], respectively). Results Three adaptations emerged from this process and were documented using the FRAME-IS: (a) increasing the scope of implementation facilitation within the medical center, (b) having the internal facilitator take a greater role in the implementation process, and (c) shortening the implementation timeframe from 12 to 8 months, while increasing the intensity of facilitation support during that time. Conclusions EBP sustainability may require careful adaptation of EBPs or the implementation strategies used to get them into routine practice. Recently developed frameworks such as the IDEA and FRAME-IS may be used to guide decision-making and document resulting adaptations themselves. An ongoing funded study is investigating the utility of the resulting adaptations for improving healthcare.

Abstract Background The evidence-based Collaborative Chronic Care Model (CCM), developed to help structure care for chronic health conditions, comprises six elements: work role redesign, patient self-management support, provider decision support, clinical information systems, linkages to community resources, and organizational/leadership support. As the CCM is increasingly implemented in real-world settings, there is heightened interest in understanding specific influences upon implementation. Therefore, guided by the Integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework, we (i) identified innovation-, recipient-, context-, and facilitation-related influences on CCM implementation and (ii) assessed the influences’ relationship to each CCM element’s implementation. Methods Using semi-structured interviews, we examined interdisciplinary behavioral health providers’ experiences at nine VA medical centers that implemented the CCM. We used i-PARIHS constructs as a priori codes for directed content analysis, then analyzed the data for cross-coding by CCM element and i-PARIHS construct. Results Participants (31 providers) perceived the CCM innovation as enabling comprehensive care but challenging to coordinate with existing structures/procedures. As recipients, participants recounted not always having the authority to design CCM-consistent care processes. They perceived local leadership support to be indispensable to implementation success and difficult to garner when CCM implementation distracted from other organizational priorities. They found implementation facilitation helpful for keeping implementation on track. We identified key themes at the intersection of i-PARIHS constructs and core CCM elements, including (i) the CCM being an innovation that offers a formal structure to stepping down care intensity for patients to encourage their self-management, (ii) recipients accessing their multidisciplinary colleagues’ expertise for provider decision support, (iii) relationships with external services in the community (e.g., homelessness programs) being a helpful context for providing comprehensive care, and (iv) facilitators helping to redesign specific interdisciplinary team member roles. Conclusions Future CCM implementation would benefit from (i) facilitating strategic development of supportive maintenance plans for patients’ self-management, (ii) collocating multidisciplinary staff (on-site or virtually) to enhance provider decision support, (iii) keeping information on available community resources up to date, and (iv) making clearer the explicit CCM-consistent care processes that work roles can be designed around. This work can inform concrete tailoring of implementation efforts to focus on the more challenging CCM elements, which is crucial to better account for multiple influences that vary across diverse care settings in which the CCM is being implemented.