Spread and Scale-Up of a Region-Wide Telehealth Navigation Service in a Rural Context: Qualitative Process Evaluation

Few evaluations of interventions adapted or developed for a rural context have been conducted, and little is known about how to spread and scale up interventions from a metropolitan to a rural context. Similarly, evidence on implementation processes for interventions to address people with frequent potentially avoidable presentations (hereafter referred to as frequent presenters) to the emergency department is scarce in rural settings. In this study, Patient Watch, a telehealth case management program modeled on a metropolitan service, was implemented in a rural context to support frequent presenters.

This study aims to understand the spread, scale-up, and sustainability of Patient Watch in a rural context to inform the potential for transferability to other contexts.

The study design was a qualitative process evaluation, collecting and synthesizing data obtained from semistructured interviews (n=10) with stakeholders, including executives, managers, physicians, and frontline staff; document review, including steering committee meeting minutes (n=17) and other relevant documents (eg, planning documents, workflow plans, consumer information, and standard operating procedures; n=20); observation of steering committee meetings of 1-hour duration (n=11); and 1 on-site visit with the Patient Watch team at the lead agency. The data were categorized into themes using thematic analysis.

Three themes were constructed from the data: (1) health care system complexity, (2) context drives adaptation and innovation, and (3) autonomy. Preexisting health system factors, including financial resources, workforce constraints, and infrastructure challenges, influenced organizational capacity to scale-up Patient Watch. Continuous adaptation in response to health system factors was essential for tailoring Patient Watch. Local autonomy facilitated adaptation to address variations across local contexts; however, restrictive governance impeded the ability to respond to local challenges.

Our findings emphasized how rural contextual factors influenced the spread, scale-up, and future sustainability of Patient Watch and provided a greater understanding of implementing and adapting a metropolitan model in a rural context. Future research should acknowledge health system complexity; prioritize ongoing adaptations in various contexts; and integrate a balance of distributed leadership to improve the spread, scale-up, and sustainability of telehealth case management interventions.