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Table 2 Strategies for clinical practice guideline implementation and their definitions

From: Strategies for the implementation of clinical practice guidelines in public health: an overview of systematic reviews

Category

Strategy

Code

Definition

Coordination of care and management of care processes

Care pathways

CAP

Aim to link evidence to practice for specific health conditions and local arrangements for delivering care [67]

Coordination of care and management of care processes

Case management

CAM

Introduction, modification or removal of strategies to improve the coordination and continuity of delivery of services, i.e. improving the management of one “case” (patient) [67]

Coordination of care and management of care processes

Clinical multidisciplinary teams

CMT

Creation of a new team of health professionals of different disciplines or additions of new members to the team who work together to care for patients [58, 67]

Coordination of care and management of care processes

Communication between providers

CBP

Systems or strategies for improving the communication between healthcare providers, for example systems to improve immunization coverage [67]

Coordination of care and management of care processes

Continuity of care

COC

Interventions to reduce fragmented care and undesirable consequences of fragmented care, for example by ensuring the responsibility of care is passed from one facility to another so the patient perceives that their needs and circumstances are known to the provider [67]

Information and communication technology

Information and communication technology

ICT

ICT used by healthcare organizations to manage the delivery of healthcare, and to deliver healthcare [67]

Changes to the healthcare environment

Structural intervention

SI

Changes to the setting/site of service delivery, physical structure, facilities and equipment, and medical records systems, among others [58]

Authority and accountability for health policies

Community mobilization

COM

Processes that enable people to organize among themselves [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Academic detailing

AD

Personal visits by a trained person to health workers in their own settings, to provide information with the aim of changing practice [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Audit and feedback

AF

A summary of health workers’ performance over a specified period of time, given to them in a written, electronic or verbal format. The summary may include recommendations for clinical action [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Communities of practice

CP

Groups of people with a common interest who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Continuous quality improvement

CQI

An iterative process to review and improve care that includes involvement of healthcare teams, analysis of a process or system, a structured process improvement method or problem-solving approach, and use of data analysis to assess changes [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Educational games

EG

The use of games as an educational strategy to improve standards of care [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Educational materials

EMA

Distribution of educational materials to individuals or groups, to support clinical care, i.e. any intervention in which knowledge is distributed [67]

Distribution of published or printed recommendations for clinical care, including clinical practice guidelines, audiovisual materials and electronic publications. The materials may have been delivered personally or through mass mailings [58]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Educational meetings

EME

Courses, workshops, conferences or other educational meetings [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Local consensus processes

LCP

Formal or informal local consensus processes, for example agreeing on a clinical protocol to manage a patient group, adapting a guideline for a local health system or promoting the implementation of guidelines [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Local opinion leaders

LOL

The identification and use of identifiable local opinion leaders to promote good clinical practice [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Monitoring the performance of the delivery of healthcare

MP

Monitoring of health services by individuals or healthcare organizations, for example by comparing with an external standard [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Patient-mediated Intervention

PMI

Any intervention aimed at changing the performance of healthcare professionals through interactions with patients, or information provided by or to patients [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Reminders

RE

Manual or computerized interventions that prompt health workers to perform an action during a consultation with a patient, for example computer decision support systems [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Tailored interventions

TI

Interventions to change practice that are selected based on an assessment of barriers to change, for example through interviews or surveys [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare organizations

Organizational culture

ORG

Strategies to change organizational culture [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare organizations

Financial interventions

FI

Targeted financial incentives for health professionals and healthcare organizations [67]

Interventions targeted at healthcare workers

Educational intervention

EI

Education-focused intervention [29]

NA

Patient incentives

PIC

Patient received direct or indirect financial reward or benefit for a specific action or to encourage them to do a specific action [58]

NA

Patient-directed interventions

PI

Interventions aimed at qualifying patients for self-care and for decision-making [46]

NA

Administrative restriction

AR

Administrative restrictions related to prescriptions [37]

NA

Marketing

MKT

Approaches that businesses would normally use to encourage people to use their materials [60]

NA

Mass media

MM

Varied use of communication that reached great numbers of people including television, radio, newspapers, posters, leaflets and booklets, alone or in conjunction with other interventions; targeted at the population level [67]

NA

Practice support

PS

Available professional to support the clinical practice or directly to the patient [26]

  1. NA strategies not classified by the EPOC