A protocol for evaluating a multi-level implementation theory to scale-up obstetric triage in referral hospitals in Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Ghana significantly reduced maternal and newborn mortality between 1990 and 2015, largely through efforts focused on improving access to care. Yet achieving further progress requires improving the quality and timeliness of care. Beginning in 2013, Ghana Health Service and Kybele, a US-based non-governmental organization, developed an innovative obstetric triage system to help midwives assess, diagnosis, and determine appropriate care plans more quickly and accurately. In 2019, efforts began to scale this successful intervention into six additional hospitals. This protocol describes the theory-based implementation approach guiding scale-up and presents the proposed mixed-methods evaluation plan. METHODS: An implementation theory was developed to describe how complementary implementation strategies would be bundled into a multi-level implementation approach. Drawing on the Interactive Systems Framework and Evidenced Based System for Implementation Support, the proposed implementation approach is designed to help individual facilities develop implementation capacity and also build a learning network across facilities to support the implementation of evidence-based interventions. A convergent design mixed methods approach will be used to evaluate implementation with relevant data drawn from tailored assessments, routinely collected process and quality monitoring data, textual analysis of relevant documents and WhatsApp group messages, and key informant interviews. Implementation outcomes of interest are acceptability, adoption, and sustainability. DISCUSSION: The past decade has seen a rapid growth in the development of frameworks, models, and theories of implementation, yet there remains little guidance on how to use these to operationalize implementation practice. This study proposes one method for using implementation theory, paired with other kinds of mid-level and program theory, to guide the replication and evaluation of a clinical intervention in a complex, real-world setting. The results of this study should help to provide evidence of how implementation theory can be used to help close the "know-do" gap. Every woman and every newborn deserves a safe and positive birth experience. Yet in many parts of the world, this goal is often more aspiration than reality. In 2006, Kybele, a US-based non-governmental organization, began working with the Ghanaian government to improve the quality of obstetric and newborn care in a large hospital in Greater Accra. One successful program was the development of a triage system that would help midwives rapidly assess pregnant women to determine who needed what kind of care and develop risk-based care plans. The program was then replicated in another large hospital in the Greater Accra region, where a systematic theory to inform triage implementation was developed. This paper describes the extension of this approach to scale-up the triage program implementation in six additional hospitals. The scale-up is guided by a multi-level theory that extends the facility level theory to include cross-facility learning networks and oversight by the health system. We explain the process of theory development to implement interventions and demonstrate how these require the combination of local contextual knowledge with evidence from the implementation science literature. We also describe our approach for evaluating the theory to assess its effectiveness in achieving key implementation outcomes. This paper provides an example of how to use implementation theories to guide the development and evaluation of complex programs in real-world settings.

Qualitative findings from a pilot stage implementation of a novel organizational learning tool toward operationalizing the Safety-II paradigm in health care.

'Safety-II' is a new approach to safety, which emphasizes learning proactively about how safety and efficacy are achieved in everyday frontline work. Previous research developed a new lesson-sharing tool designed based on the Safety-II approach: Resilience Engineering Tool to Improve Patient Safety (RETIPS). The tool comprises questions designed to elicit narratives of adaptations that have contributed to effectiveness in care delivery. The purpose of this study is to revise and validate the design of RETIPS. The tool was revised based on feedback of clinicians at a large multi-specialty hospital, resulting in a version customized for anesthesia residents, RETIPS-AnRes. RETIPS-AnRes was administered on a pilot-basis to anesthesia resident groups for a limited period of time. A review of the reports obtained shows a strong alignment of responses with the conceptual basis of the tool, i.e. learning about how things go well in everyday work. The exemplars include both, specific instances of successful patient care, as well as generic routines that contribute to safe and/or effective care delivery. These findings support RETIPS as a tool to operationalize the Safety-II paradigm in healthcare. Lessons and implications for implementation on a wider scale are discussed.

Opportunities and challenges in Taiwan for implementing the learning health system.

Due to the low ratio of medical decisions made upon solid scientific evidence (4%) and the low efficiency of deploying knowledge in practice (17 years), the concept of a learning health system (LHS) was initiated to speed up knowledge generation and adoption and systematically approach continuous improvement in clinical practice. This concept can be illustrated by a so-called learning health cycle. This cycle, the first version as well as its variants, provides a framework for discussion on a common basis and has been well-accepted by the medical communities. Though the idea attracted major attention widely, very little has been done in way of actual adoption in real practices in the past 10 years. Nevertheless, as one of the pioneers in Taiwan, we have been involved in the effort to implement the LHS locally since 2016. In this article, we systematically summarize the evolution of the learning health cycle, review cases of its applications and briefly introduce the work we have done for promoting LHSs in Taiwan. Based on the experience we have gained, we try to identify the challenges and opportunities in Taiwan. While full-scale electronic medical records powered by the National Health Insurance system give Taiwan a special advantage in achieving a nationwide LHS, the medical community is not yet ready for a dramatic change. The lack of infrastructure for this use and motivation to take action right away makes the implementation of a LHS in Taiwan challenging.