Change Facilitation Strategies Used in the Implementation of Innovations in Healthcare Practice: A Systematic Review

Publication Type:
Journal Article
Citation:
Journal of Change Management, 2019, 19 (4), pp. 283 - 301
Issue Date:
2019-10-02
Full metadata record
© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. To improve patient outcomes, healthcare practices undergo constant implementation of innovations. An implementation intervention that considers organizational and behavioural aspects is facilitation. Change Facilitators help individuals and groups realize what they need to change and how to make change happen. However, behavioural change trials require more sufficient details to improve delivery, fidelity and evaluation. The aim of this paper was to identify facilitation strategies used during the implementation of innovations in health care, determine those most frequently used and their relation to study outcomes. For this systematic review, randomized controlled trials reporting an onsite facilitator to aid in innovation implementation in a healthcare setting were identified. The database search yielded 2,350 articles, from which 35 studies were included. From these, 51 facilitation strategies were identified. Nine of the strategies appeared in more than 50% of studies and those reporting positive results included: goal-setting, assessing progress and outcomes, and providing tools and resources. These findings provide facilitators with evidence-based strategies to deliver in practice and to ensure consistency in facilitation training. Future research should aim to provide further tools that recommend the most effective facilitation strategies and a model to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and evaluation of the change facilitation process. MAD statement This article sets out to make a difference for those implementing innovations in the healthcare industry, by arming change facilitators with practical, evidence-based strategies to facilitate change more effectively. Furthermore, this article highlights the need for specific tools and models that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the change facilitation process and its evaluation.
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