Getting to Fidelity: Consensus Development Process to Identify Core Activities of Implementation Facilitation

Area of Science:

• Implementation Science
• Healthcare Management
• Clinical Innovation Adoption

Background:

• Translating research into practice necessitates fidelity assessment of implementation strategies.
• Implementation Facilitation (IF) is a dynamic, interactive strategy supporting clinical innovation adoption.
• Assessing IF fidelity is challenging due to its multifaceted nature.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify core activities for monitoring fidelity to Implementation Facilitation (IF) in clinical settings.
• To establish a consensus-based list of essential IF activities across implementation phases.
• To provide a foundation for developing fidelity assessment tools for IF.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a scoping literature review (1996-2015) to identify IF activities.
• Extracted data on IF activities, their reported core status, and outcomes from 135 articles.
• Utilized a 3-stage modified-Delphi expert panel process to reach consensus on core IF activities.

Main Results:

• Identified 32 distinct IF activities from the literature review.
• An expert panel consensus identified 8 core activities for the Pre-Implementation Phase.
• The panel identified 8 core activities for the Implementation Phase and 4 for the Sustainment Phase.

Conclusions:

• This study successfully identified core activities for IF across three implementation phases.
• The findings provide a crucial foundation for developing robust fidelity monitoring tools for IF.
• Ensuring fidelity to core IF activities is essential for successful clinical innovation implementation.