HEALTHCARE QUALITY PAGE

BLOG DECEMBER 2024

Time to use change intervention plans? — Part 2 on improving the change process

Healthcare professionals working on quality improvement (QI), patient safety projects, and clinical audits should move beyond traditional action plans and focus instead on change interventions. A change intervention is an activity, or set of activities, that is known or strongly expected to contribute causally to a desired outcome. In QI, patient safety, and clinical audit work, that outcome should be a measurable improvement in the quality or safety of patient care.

Several models can help teams identify and design effective change interventions. The hierarchy of risk controls and the hierarchy of intervention effectiveness are commonly used to improve patient safety. The behaviour change wheel identifies three essential conditions — capability, opportunity, and motivation — that influence the success of implementation of clinical practice guidelines. The systems change model, using criteria such as scope, breadth, depth, and degree, helps teams identify different levels of system change. The theoretical domains framework uses questions to guide applying a theory of change intended to achieve improvement. Intervention mapping is intended to help translate research evidence into effective day-to-day clinical practice.

Given this range of models for planning and implementing change, teams should consider using one of them to develop change intervention plans rather than relying on traditional action plans.