The assimilation of evidence-based healthcare innovations: a management-based perspective

In order to reap the benefits of the nation's vast investments in healthcare discoveries, evidence-based healthcare innovations (EBHI) must be assimilated by the organizations that adopt them. Data from a naturalistic field study are used to test a management-based model of implementation success which hypothesizes strategic fit, climate for EBHI implementation, and fidelity will explain variability in the assimilation of EBHIs by organizations that adopted them under ordinary circumstances approximately 6 years earlier. Data gathered from top managers and external consultants directly involved with these long-term EBHI implementation efforts provide preliminary support for predicted positive linkages between strategic fit and climate; climate and fidelity; and fidelity and assimilation. Mediated regression analyses also suggest that climate and fidelity may be important mediators. Findings raise important questions about the meaning of assimilation, top managers' roles as agents of assimilation, and the extent to which results represent real-world versus implicit models of assimilation.