Implementing evidence-based telephone coaching for health behavior program enrollment: A quality improvement project

Area of Science:

• Health Behavior Interventions
• Implementation Science
• Program Evaluation

Background:

• Telephone-based engagement coaching interventions can support health behavior program enrollment.
• Paraprofessional staff can be utilized to deliver such interventions.
• Implementation facilitation is crucial for successful intervention uptake.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the use of implementation facilitation to support the uptake of the ACTIVATE telephone-based engagement coaching intervention.
• To assess the feasibility of delivering ACTIVATE using paraprofessional staff.
• To examine the role of external facilitation in translating the intervention from research to clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• The RE-AIM framework guided the formative evaluation.
• A mixed-methods approach integrated qualitative (rapid analysis) and quantitative (descriptive statistics, chi-square, logistic regression) analyses.
• Data were collected to assess reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance.

Main Results:

• The ACTIVATE intervention was offered to most patients (95%) and completed by 82 patients.
• Delivery by paraprofessional staff was feasible with necessary adaptations for clinical settings.
• External facilitation was associated with higher reach of the intervention.

Conclusions:

• Telephone-based coaching by paraprofessional staff is a feasible method for supporting health behavior program enrollment.
• External facilitation plays a critical role in the successful translation of interventions from research to clinical practice.
• The ACTIVATE intervention, supported by implementation facilitation, shows promise for improving health behaviors.