Four System Enablers of Large-System Transformation in Health Care: A Mixed Methods Realist Evaluation.

Policy Points The implementation of large-scale health care interventions relies on a shared vision, commitment to change, coordination across sites, and a spanning of siloed knowledge. Enablers of the system should include building an authorizing environment; providing relevant, meaningful, transparent, and timely data; designating and distributing leadership and decision making; and fostering the emergence of a learning culture. Attention to these four enablers can set up a positive feedback loop to foster positive change that can protect against the loss of key staff, the presence of lone disruptors, and the enervating effects of uncertainty. CONTEXT: Large-scale transformative initiatives have the potential to improve the quality, efficiency, and safety of health care. However, change is expensive, complex, and difficult to implement and sustain. This paper advances system enablers, which will help to guide large-scale transformation in health care systems. METHODS: A realist study of the implementation of a value-based health care program between 2017 and 2021 was undertaken in every public hospital (n = 221) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Four data sources were used to elucidate initial program theories beginning with a set of literature reviews, a program document review, and informal discussions with key stakeholders. Semistructured interviews were then conducted with 56 stakeholders to confirm, refute, or refine the theories. A retroductive analysis produced a series of context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) statements. Next, the CMOs were validated with three health care quality expert panels (n = 51). Synthesized data were interrogated to distill the overarching system enablers. FINDINGS: Forty-two CMO statements from the eight initial program theory areas were developed, refined, and validated. Four system enablers were identified: (1) build an authorizing environment; (2) provide relevant, authentic, timely, and meaningful data; (3) designate and distribute leadership and decision making; and (4) support the emergence of a learning culture. The system enablers provide a nuanced understanding of large-system transformation that illustrates when, for whom, and in what circumstances large-system transformation worked well or worked poorly. CONCLUSIONS: System enablers offer nuanced guidance for the implementation of large-scale health care interventions. The four enablers may be portable to similar contexts and provide the empirical basis for an implementation model of large-system value-based health care initiatives. With concerted application, these findings can pave the way not just for a better understanding of greater or lesser success in intervening in health care settings but ultimately to contribute higher quality, higher value, and safer care.

Systems resilience in the implementation of a large-scale suicide prevention intervention: a qualitative study using a multilevel theoretical approach.

BACKGROUND: Resilience, the capacity to adapt and respond to challenges and disturbances, is now considered fundamental to understanding how healthcare systems maintain required levels of performance across varying conditions. Limited research has examined healthcare resilience in the context of implementing healthcare improvement programs across multiple system levels, particularly within community-based mental health settings or systems. In this study, we explored resilient characteristics across varying system levels (individual, team, management) during the implementation of a large-scale community-based suicide prevention intervention. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (n=53) were conducted with coordinating teams from the four intervention regions and the central implementation management team. Data were audio-recorded, transcribed, and imported into NVivo for analysis. A thematic analysis of eight transcripts involving thirteen key personnel was conducted using a deductive approach to identify characteristics of resilience across multiple system levels and an inductive approach to uncover both impediments to, and strategies that supported, resilient performance during the implementation of the suicide prevention intervention. RESULTS: Numerous impediments to resilient performance were identified (e.g., complexity of the intervention, and incompatible goals and priorities between system levels). Consistent with the adopted theoretical framework, indicators of resilient performance relating to anticipation, sensemaking, adaptation and tradeoffs were identified at multiple system levels. At each of the system levels, distinctive strategies were identified that promoted resilience. At the individual and team levels, several key strategies were used by the project coordinators to promote resilience, such as building relationships and networks and carefully prioritising available resources. At the management level, strategies included teambuilding, collaborative learning, building relationships with external stakeholders, monitoring progress and providing feedback. The results also suggested that resilience at one level can shape resilience at other levels in complex ways; most notably we identified that there can be a downside to resilience, with negative consequences including stress and burnout, among individuals enacting resilience. CONCLUSIONS: The importance of considering resilience from a multilevel systems perspective, as well as implications for theory and future research, are discussed.

Hospital organizational change: The importance of teamwork culture, communication, and change readiness.

Background: Hospital organizational change can be a challenging time, especially when staff do not feel informed and ready for the change to come. A supportive workplace culture can mitigate the negative effects allowing for a smooth transition during hospital organizational change. In this paper, we test an exploratory path model by which teamwork culture influences staff attitudes in feeling informed and ready for change, and which are ultimately related to reduced staff burnout. We also examined different types of change communication, identifying the channels that were perceived as most useful for communicating organizational change. Methods: In 2019, a cross-sectional online and paper-based survey of all staff (clinical and non-clinical) was conducted at a hospital undergoing major organizational change in Sydney, Australia. The survey included items regarding teamwork culture, communication (feeling informed, communication channels), change readiness (appropriateness, change efficacy), and burnout. With a sample size of 153 (62% clinical staff), regression and path analyses were used to examine relationships between variables. Results: The total effects between teamwork culture and burnout was significant [ß (Total) = -0.37, p < 0.001) and explained through a serial mediation. This relationship was found to be mediated by three factors (feeling informed, appropriateness of change and change efficacy) in a full mediation. Further, change readiness (appropriateness of change and change efficacy) mediated the relationship between feeling informed and burnout. The most useful channels of change communication included face-to-face informal communication, emails, and a newsletter specifically about the change. Conclusion: Overall, the results supported the predicted hypotheses and were consistent with past research. In the context of large hospital change, staff with a positive teamwork culture who feel informed are more likely to feel change-ready, heightening the chances of successful organizational change and potentially reducing staff burnout. Understanding the pathways on how culture and communication related to burnout during organizational change provides an explanatory pathway that can be used to heighten the chances of a smooth change transition with minimal disruption to staff and patient care.

Innovative models of healthcare delivery: an umbrella review of reviews.

OBJECTIVE: To undertake a synthesis of evidence-based research for seven innovative models of care to inform the development of new hospitals. DESIGN: Umbrella review. SETTING: Interventions delivered inside and outside of acute care settings. PARTICIPANTS: Children and adults with one or more identified acute or chronic health conditions. DATA SOURCES: PsycINFO, Ovid MEDLINE and CINAHL. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinical indicators and mortality, healthcare utilisation, quality of life, self-management and self-care and patient knowledge. RESULTS: A total of 66 reviews were included, synthesising evidence from 1272 primary studies across the 7 models of care. Virtual care was the most common model studied, addressed by 47 (73%) of the reviews. Common outcomes evaluated across reviews were clinical indicators and mortality, healthcare utilisation, self-care and self-management, patient knowledge, quality of life and cost-effectiveness. The findings indicate that the innovative models of healthcare we identified in this review may be effective in managing patients with a range of acute and chronic conditions. Most of the included reviews reported evidence of comparable or improved care. CONCLUSIONS: A consideration of local infrastructure and individual patient characteristics, such as health literacy, may be critical in determining the suitability of models of care for patients and their implementation in local health systems. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: 10.17605/OSF.IO/PS6ZU.

Innovative models of care for the health facility of the future: a protocol for a mixed-methods study to elicit consumer and provider views.

INTRODUCTION: To address the challenges of rapidly changing healthcare, governments and health services are increasingly emphasising healthcare delivery models that are flexible, person centred, cost-effective and integrate hospital services more closely with primary healthcare and social services. In addition, such models increasingly embed consumer codesign, integration of services, and leverage digital technologies such as telehealth and sophisticated medical records systems. OBJECTIVES: This paper provides a study protocol to describe a method to elicit consumer and healthcare provider needs and expectations for the development of innovative care models. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A literature review identified six key models of care, supported by a common theme of consumer-focused care, along with the international evidence supporting the efficacy of these models. A mixed-methods study of the needs and expectations of consumer members and health providers who reside or work in the area of a new hospital catchment will be undertaken. They will complete a community-specific and provider-specific, short demographic questionnaire (delivered during the recruitment process) and be assigned to facilitator-coordinated online workshops comprising small focus groups. Follow-up interviews will be offered. Culturally and linguistically diverse members and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and their communities will also be consulted. Data will be analysed thematically (qualitative) and statistically (quantitative), and findings synthesised using a triangulated approach. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The results will be actively disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations and in a report to stakeholders. This study was reviewed and approved by the relevant Ethics Committee in New South Wales, Australia.

"The times they are a-changin'": A longitudinal, mixed methods case study of a hospital transformation.

BACKGROUND: Changes to hospital infrastructure are inevitable in ever-evolving healthcare systems. The redevelopment of hospitals and opening of new buildings can be a complex and challenging time for staff as they must find ways to deliver safe and high-quality care while navigating the complexities and uncertainties of change. This study explores the perspectives and experiences of staff and patients before and after the opening of a new hospital building as part of a large public hospital redevelopment in Sydney, Australia. METHODS: The study comprised a longitudinal mixed methods case study design. Methods included two rounds of staff surveys (n = 292 participants), two rounds of staff interviews (n = 66), six rounds of patient surveys (n = 255), and analysis of hospital data at tri-monthly intervals over two years. Data were compared before (2019) and after (2020) a new hospital building opened at a publicly funded hospital in Sydney, Australia. RESULTS: Four key themes and perspectives emerged from the interviews including change uncertainty, communication effectiveness, staffing adequacy and staff resilience. Significant differences in staff perceptions of change readiness over time was identified. Specifically, perceptions that the organisational change was appropriate significantly decreased (2019: 15.93 ± 3.86; 2020: 14.13 ± 3.62; p < .001) and perceptions that staff could deal with the change significantly increased (2019: 17.30 ± 4.77; 2020: 19.16 ± 4.36; p = .001) after the building opened compared to before. Global satisfaction scores from patient survey data showed that patient experience significantly declined after the building opened compared to before (2020: 81.70 ± 21.52; 2019: 84.43 ± 18.46)), t(254) = -64.55, p < 0.05, and improved a few months after opening of the new facilities. This coincided with the improvement in staff perceptions in dealing with the change. CONCLUSIONS: Moving into a new hospital building can be a challenging time for staff and patients. Staff experienced uncertainty and stress, and displayed practices of resilience to deliver patient care during a difficult period of change. Policy makers, hospital managers, staff and patients must work together to minimise disruption to patient care and experience. Key recommendations for future hospital redevelopment projects outline the importance of supporting and informing staff and patients during the opening of a new hospital building.

Mapping continuous learning using social network research: a social network study of Australian Genomics as a Learning Health System.

OBJECTIVES: To explore a macrolevel Learning Health System (LHS) and examine if an intentionally designed network can foster a collaborative learning community over time. The secondary aim was to demonstrate the application of social network research to the field of LHS. DESIGN: Two longitudinal online questionnaires of the Australian Genomics learning community considering relationships between network members at three time points: 2016, 2018, 2019. The questionnaire included closed Likert response questions on collaborative learning patterns and open-response questions to capture general perceptions of the community. Social network data were analysed and visually constructed using Gephi V.0.9.2 software, Likert questions were analysed using SPSS, and open responses were analysed thematically using NVivo. SETTING: Australian Genomic Health Alliance. PARTICIPANTS: Clinicians, scientists, researchers and community representatives. RESULTS: Australian Genomics members highlighted the collaborative benefits of the network as a learning community to foster continuous learning in the ever-evolving field of clinical genomics. The learning community grew from 186 members (2016), to 384 (2018), to 439 (2019). Network density increased (2016=0.023, 2018=0.043), then decreased (2019=0.036). Key players remained consistent with potential for new members to achieve focal positions in the network. Informal learning was identified as the most influential learning method for genomic practice. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that intentionally building a network provides a platform for continuous learning-a fundamental component for establishing an LHS. The Australian Genomics learning community shows evidence of maturity and sustainability in supporting the continuous learning culture of clinical genomics. The network provides a practical means to spread new knowledge and best practice across the entire field. We show that intentionally designed networks provide the opportunity and means for interdisciplinary learning between diverse agents over time and demonstrate the application of social network research to the LHS field.

Predictors of response rates of safety culture questionnaires in healthcare: a systematic review and analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Safety culture questionnaires are widely used in healthcare to understand how staff feel at work, their attitudes and views, and the influence this has on safe and high-quality patient care. A known challenge of safety culture questionnaires is achieving high response rates to enhance reliability and validity. This review examines predictors of response rates, explores reasons provided for low response rates and identifies strategies to improve those rates. METHODS: Four bibliometric databases were searched for studies assessing safety culture in hospitals from January 2008 to May 2022. Data were extracted from 893 studies that included a safety culture questionnaire conducted in the hospital setting. Regression was used to predict response rate based on recruitment and data collection methods (incentives, reminders, method of survey administration) and country income classification. Reasons for low response were thematically analysed and used to identify strategies to improve response rates. RESULTS: Of the 893 studies that used a questionnaire to assess safety culture in hospitals, 75.6% reported a response rate. Response rates varied from 4.2% to 100%, with a mean response rate of 66.5% (SD=21.0). Regression analyses showed that safety culture questionnaires conducted in low-income and middle-income countries were significantly more likely to yield a higher response rate compared with high-income countries. Mode of administration, questionnaire length and timing of administration were identified as key factors. Remote methods of questionnaire data collection (electronic and by post) were significantly less likely to result in a higher response rate. Reasons provided for low response included: survey fatigue, time constraints, and lack of resources. CONCLUSION: This review presents strategies for researchers and hospital staff to implement when conducting safety culture questionnaires: principally, distribute questionnaires in-person, during meetings or team training sessions; use a local champion; and consider the appropriate time of distribution to manage survey fatigue.

Correction: The Science of Learning Health Systems: Scoping Review of Empirical Research.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/34907.].

Making implementation science more real.

Implementation science in healthcare aims to understand how to get evidence into practice. Once this is achieved in one setting, it becomes increasingly difficult to replicate elsewhere. The problem is often attributed to differences in context that influence how and whether implementation strategies work. We argue that realist research paradigms provide a useful framework to express the effect of contextual factors within implementation strategy causal processes. Realist studies are theory-driven evaluations that focus on understanding how and why interventions work under different circumstances. They consider the interaction between contextual circumstances, theoretical mechanisms of change and the outcomes they produce, to arrive at explanations of conditional causality (i.e., what tends to work, for whom, under what circumstances). This Commentary provides example applications using preliminary findings from a large realist implementation study of system-wide value-based healthcare initiatives in New South Wales, Australia. If applied judiciously, realist implementation studies may represent a sound approach to help optimise delivery of the right care in the right setting and at the right time.

Conceptualising contexts, mechanisms and outcomes for implementing large-scale, multisite hospital improvement initiatives: a realist synthesis.

DESIGN: Realist synthesis. STUDY BACKGROUND: Large-scale hospital improvement initiatives can standardise healthcare across multiple sites but results are contingent on the implementation strategies that complement them. The benefits of these implemented interventions are rarely able to be replicated in different contexts. Realist studies explore this phenomenon in depth by identifying underlying context-mechanism-outcome interactions. OBJECTIVES: To review implementation strategies used in large-scale hospital initiatives and hypothesise initial programme theories for how they worked across different contexts. METHODS: An iterative, four-step process was applied. Step 1 explored the concepts inherent in large-scale interventions using database searches and snowballing. Step 2 identified strategies used in their implementation. Step 3 identified potential initial programme theories that may explain strategies' mechanisms. Step 4 focused on one strategy-theory pairing to develop and test context-mechanism-outcome hypotheses. Data was drawn from searches (March-May 2020) of MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed and CINAHL, snowballed from key papers, implementation support websites and the expertise of the research team and experts. INCLUSION CRITERIA: reported implementation of a large-scale, multisite hospital intervention. RAMESES reporting standards were followed. RESULTS: Concepts were identified from 51 of 381 articles. Large-scale hospital interventions were characterised by a top-down approach, external and internal support and use of evidence-based interventions. We found 302 reports of 28 different implementation strategies from 31 reviews (from a total of 585). Formal theories proposed for the implementation strategies included Diffusion of Innovation, and Organisational Readiness Theory. Twenty-three context-mechanism-outcome statements for implementation strategies associated with planning and assessment activities were proposed. Evidence from the published literature supported the hypothesised programme theories and were consistent with Organisational Readiness Theory's tenets. CONCLUSION: This paper adds to the literature exploring why large-scale hospital interventions are not always successfully implemented and suggests 24 causative mechanisms and contextual factors that may drive outcomes in the planning and assessment stage.

An exploratory survey study of disorder and its association with safety culture in four hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Signs of disorder in neighbourhoods (e.g., litter, graffiti) are thought to influence the behaviour of residents, potentially leading to violations of rules and petty criminal behaviour. Recently, these premises have been applied to the hospital context, with physical and social disorder found to have a negative association with patient safety. Building on these results, the present study investigates whether physical and social disorder differ between hospitals, and their relationship to safety culture. METHODS: We conducted a cross sectional survey with Likert-style and open response questions administered in four Australian hospitals. All staff were invited to participate in the pilot study from May to September 2018. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine differences in disorder by hospital, and hierarchical linear regression assessed the relationship of physical and social disorder to key aspects of safety culture (safety climate, teamwork climate). Open responses were analysed using thematic analysis to elaborate on manifestations of hospital disorder. RESULTS: There were 415 survey respondents. Significant differences were found in perceptions of physical disorder across the four hospitals. There were no significant differences between hospitals in levels of social disorder. Social disorder had a significant negative relationship with safety and teamwork climate, and physical disorder significantly predicted a poorer teamwork climate. We identified five themes relevant to physical disorder and four for social disorder from participants' open responses; the preponderance of these themes across hospitals supported quantitative results. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that physical and social disorder are important to consider in attempting to holistically understand a hospital's safety culture. Interventions that target aspects of physical and social disorder in a hospital may hold value in improving safety culture and patient safety.

The Science of Learning Health Systems: Scoping Review of Empirical Research.

BACKGROUND: The development and adoption of a learning health system (LHS) has been proposed as a means to address key challenges facing current and future health care systems. The first review of the LHS literature was conducted 5 years ago, identifying only a small number of published papers that had empirically examined the implementation or testing of an LHS. It is timely to look more closely at the published empirical research and to ask the question, Where are we now? 5 years on from that early LHS review. OBJECTIVE: This study performed a scoping review of empirical research within the LHS domain. Taking an "implementation science" lens, the review aims to map out the empirical research that has been conducted to date, identify limitations, and identify future directions for the field. METHODS: Two academic databases (PubMed and Scopus) were searched using the terms "learning health* system*" for papers published between January 1, 2016, to January 31, 2021, that had an explicit empirical focus on LHSs. Study information was extracted relevant to the review objective, including each study's publication details; primary concern or focus; context; design; data type; implementation framework, model, or theory used; and implementation determinants or outcomes examined. RESULTS: A total of 76 studies were included in this review. Over two-thirds of the studies were concerned with implementing a particular program, system, or platform (53/76, 69.7%) designed to contribute to achieving an LHS. Most of these studies focused on a particular clinical context or patient population (37/53, 69.8%), with far fewer studies focusing on whole hospital systems (4/53, 7.5%) or on other broad health care systems encompassing multiple facilities (12/53, 22.6%). Over two-thirds of the program-specific studies utilized quantitative methods (37/53, 69.8%), with a smaller number utilizing qualitative methods (10/53, 18.9%) or mixed-methods designs (6/53, 11.3%). The remaining 23 studies were classified into 1 of 3 key areas: ethics, policies, and governance (10/76, 13.2%); stakeholder perspectives of LHSs (5/76, 6.6%); or LHS-specific research strategies and tools (8/76, 10.5%). Overall, relatively few studies were identified that incorporated an implementation science framework. CONCLUSIONS: Although there has been considerable growth in empirical applications of LHSs within the past 5 years, paralleling the recent emergence of LHS-specific research strategies and tools, there are few high-quality studies. Comprehensive reporting of implementation and evaluation efforts is an important step to moving the LHS field forward. In particular, the routine use of implementation determinant and outcome frameworks will improve the assessment and reporting of barriers, enablers, and implementation outcomes in this field and will enable comparison and identification of trends across studies.

Learning health systems: A review of key topic areas and bibliometric trends.

INTRODUCTION: The emergent field of learning health systems (LHSs) has been rapidly evolving as the concept continues to be embraced by researchers, managers, and clinicians. This paper reports on a scoping review and bibliometric analysis of the LHS literature to identify key topic areas and examine the influence and spread of recent research. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of LHS literature published between January 2016 and May 2020. The authors extracted publication data (eg, journal, country, authors, citation count, keywords) and reviewed full-texts to identify: type of study (empirical, non-empirical, or review), degree of focus (general or specific), and the reference used when defining LHSs. RESULTS: A total of 272 publications were included in this review. Almost two thirds (65.1%) of the included articles were non-empirical and over two-thirds (68.4%) were from authors in the United States. More than half of the publications focused on specific areas, for example: oncology, cardiovascular care, and genomic medicine. Other key topic areas included: ethics, research, quality improvement, and electronic health records. We identified that definitions of the LHS concept are converging; however, many papers focused on data platforms and analytical processes rather than organisational and behavioural factors to support change and learning activities. CONCLUSIONS: The literature on LHSs remains largely theoretical with definitions of LHSs focusing on technical processes to reuse data collected during the clinical process and embedding analysed data back into the system. A shift in the literature to empirical LHS studies with consideration of organisational and human factors is warranted.

Engagement with healthcare providers and healthcare system navigation among Australians with chronic conditions: a descriptive survey study.

OBJECTIVES: With the rate of chronic conditions increasing globally, it is important to understand whether people with chronic conditions have the capacity to find the right care and to effectively engage with healthcare providers to optimise health outcomes.We aimed to examine associations between care navigation, engagement with health providers and having a chronic health condition among Australian adults. DESIGN AND SETTING: This is a cross-sectional, 39-item online survey including the navigation and engagement subscales of the Health Literacy Questionnaire, completed in December 2018, in Australia. Binary variables (low/high health literacy) were created for each item and navigation and engagement subscale scores. Logistic regression analyses (estimating ORs) determined the associations between having a chronic condition and the navigation and engagement scores, while controlling for age, gender, level of education and income. PARTICIPANTS: 1024 Australians aged 18-88 years (mean=46.6 years; 51% female) recruited from the general population. RESULTS: Over half (n=605, 59.0%) of the respondents had a chronic condition, mostly back pain, mental disorders, arthritis and asthma. A greater proportion of respondents with chronic conditions had difficulty ensuring that healthcare providers understood their problems (32.2% vs 23.8%, p=0.003), having good discussions with their doctors (29.1% vs 23.5%, p=0.05), discussing things with healthcare providers until they understand all they needed (30.5% vs 24.5%, p=0.04), accessing needed healthcare providers (35.7% vs 29.7%, p=0.05), finding the right place to get healthcare services (36.3% vs 29.2%, p=0.02) and services they were entitled to (48.3% vs 40.6%, p=0.02), and working out what is the best healthcare for themselves (34.2% vs 27.7%, p=0.03). Participants with chronic conditions were 1.5 times more likely to have low scores on the engagement (adjusted OR=1.48, p=0.03, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.08) and navigation (adjusted OR=1.43, p=0.026, 95% CI 1.043 to 1.970) subscales after adjusting for age, gender, income and education. CONCLUSION: Upskilling in engagement and communication for healthcare providers and people with chronic conditions is needed. Codesigned, clearly articulated and accessible information about service entitlements and pathways through care should be made available to people with chronic conditions. Greater integration across health services, accessible shared health records and access to care coordinators may improve navigation and engagement.

"Time is of the essence": relationship between hospital staff perceptions of time, safety attitudes and staff wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: Hospitals are perceived as fast-paced and complex environments in which a missed or incorrect diagnosis or misread chart has the potential to lead to patient harm. However, to date, limited attention has been paid to studying how hospital sociotemporal norms may be associated with staff wellbeing or patient safety. The aim of this study was to use novel network analysis, in conjunction with well-established statistical methods, to investigate and untangle the complex interplay of relationships between hospital staff perceived sociotemporal structures, staff safety attitudes and work-related well-being. METHOD: Cross-sectional survey data of hospital staff (n = 314) was collected from four major hospitals in Australia. The survey included subscales from the Organizational Temporality Scale (OTS), two previously established scales of safety attitudes (teamwork climate and safety climate) and measures of staff-related wellbeing (job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation). RESULTS: Using confirmatory factor analysis, we first tested a 19-item version of the OTS for use in future studies of hospital temporality (the OTS-H). Novel psychological network analysis techniques were then employed, which identified that "pace" (the tempo or rate of hospital activity) occupies the central position in understanding the complex relationship between temporality, safety attitudes and staff wellbeing. Using a path analysis approach, serial mediation further identified that pace has an indirect relationship with safety attitudes through wellbeing factors, that is, pace impacts on staff wellbeing, which in turn affects hospital safety attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study are important in revealing that staff wellbeing and safety attitudes can be significantly improved by placing more focus on temporal norms, and in particular hospital pace. There are implications for increasing levels of trust and providing staff with opportunities to exercise greater levels of control over their work.

The Application of e-Mental Health in Response to COVID-19: Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and its mitigation measures and impacts, such as shelter-in-place orders, social isolation, restrictions on freedoms, unemployment, financial insecurity, and disrupted routines, have led to declines in mental health worldwide and concomitant escalating demands for mental health services. Under the circumstances, electronic mental health (e-mental health) programs and services have rapidly become the "new normal." OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess key characteristics and evidence gaps in the e-mental health literature published in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic via a scoping review and bibliometric analysis. METHODS: We conducted a search of four academic databases (ie, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, and CINAHL) for documents published from December 31, 2019, to March 31, 2021, using keywords for e-mental health and COVID-19. Article information was extracted that was relevant to the review objective, including journal, type of article, keywords, focus, and corresponding author. Information was synthesized by coding these attributes and was then summarized through descriptive statistics and narrative techniques. Article influence was examined from Altmetric and CiteScore data, and a network analysis was conducted on article keywords. RESULTS: A total of 356 publications were included in the review. Articles on e-mental health quickly thrived early in the pandemic, with most articles being nonempirical, chiefly commentaries or opinions (n=225, 63.2%). Empirical publications emerged later and became more frequent as the pandemic progressed. The United States contributed the most articles (n=160, 44.9%), though a notable number came from middle-income countries (n=59, 16.6%). Articles were spread across 165 journals and had above-average influence (ie, almost half of the articles were in the top 25% of output scores by Altmetric, and the average CiteScore across articles was 4.22). The network analysis of author-supplied keywords identified key topic areas, including specific mental disorders, eHealth modalities, issues and challenges, and populations of interest. These were further explored via full-text analysis. Applications of e-mental health during the pandemic overcame, or were influenced by, system, service, technology, provider, and patient factors. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 has accelerated applications of e-mental health. Further research is needed to support the implementation of e-mental health across system and service infrastructures, alongside evidence of the relative effectiveness of e-mental health in comparison to traditional modes of care.

A comprehensive overview of social network measures for older adults: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: The size and type of older adults' social networks is associated with health, mental and social outcomes. Investigators within many disciplines are now measuring social networks, but it is not always clear what they are assessing, or which measures may best meet their objectives. To undertake a systematic review to identify (i) social network measures used for older adults, (ii) variety of social network dimensions and (iii) how measures have developed over time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched to identify social network instruments, followed by categorization of the domains into quantitative, qualitative and alter domains. RESULTS: A total of 229 studies and 21 social network measures were included, with 11 quantitative dimensions (e.g., size, frequency), 5 qualitative dimensions (e.g., support satisfaction, emotional bond) and 7 alter members (e.g., family, neighbours) of social networks identified. Measures commonly clustered on quantifiable network size (n = 19), availability of supportive networks (n = 14) and presence of family ties (n = 21). The period between 1985 and 1995 produced the greatest number of newly developed social network measures (n = 10) with a stronger focus on qualitative features. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: This review provides researchers with an organized summary of measures and dimensions for consideration when appraising social connections in older adults. This can enable better study design through providing information that makes explicit inevitable trade-offs between survey length, comprehensiveness of dimension coverage, and utilization of the measure for researchers. PROSPERO Registration number: CRD42016043089.

The pace of hospital life: A mixed methods study.

The pace-of-life hypothesis is a socio-psychological theory postulating that citizens of different cities transact the business of life at varying paces, and this pace is associated with a number of population level variables. Here we apply the pace-of-life hypothesis to a hospital context to empirically test the association between pace and patient and staff outcomes. As pressure on hospitals grow and pace increases to keep up with demand, is there empirical evidence of a trade-off between a rapid pace and poorer outcomes? We collected data from four large Australian hospitals, inviting all staff (clinical and non-clinical) to complete a survey, and conducted a series of observations of hospital staff's walking pace and transactional pace. From these data we constructed three measures of pace: staff perception of pace, transactional pace, and walking pace. Outcome measures included: hospital culture, perceived patient safety, and staff well-being outcomes of job satisfaction and burnout. Overall, participants reported experiencing a "fast-paced" "hurried" and "rapid" pace-of-life working in the Australian hospital sector. We found a significant difference in perceived pace across four hospital sites, similar to trends observed for transactional pace. This provides support that the pace-of-life hypothesis may apply to the hospital context. We tested associations between faster perceived pace, hospital culture, staff well-being and patient safety. Results revealed perceived faster pace significantly predicted negative perceptions of organizational culture, greater burnout and lower job satisfaction. However, perceived pace did not predict perceptions of patient safety. Different perceptions of hospital pace-of-life were found between different clinical settings and the type of care delivered; staff working in emergency departments reported significantly "faster-paced" work environments than staff working in palliative, aged care, or rehabilitation wards.

Dimensions of safety culture: a systematic review of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods for assessing safety culture in hospitals.

BACKGROUND: The study of safety culture and its relationship to patient care have been challenged by variation in definition, dimensionality and methods of assessment. This systematic review aimed to map methods to assess safety culture in hospitals, analyse the prevalence of these methods in the published research literature and examine the dimensions of safety culture captured through these processes. METHODS: We included studies reporting on quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods to assess safety culture in hospitals. The review was conducted using four academic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science) with studies from January 2008 to May 2020. A formal quality appraisal was not conducted. Study purpose, type of method and safety culture dimensions were extracted from all studies, coded thematically, and summarised narratively and using descriptive statistics where appropriate. RESULTS: A total of 694 studies were included. A third (n=244, 35.2%) had a descriptive or exploratory purpose, 225 (32.4%) tested relationships among variables, 129 (18.6%) evaluated an intervention, while 13.8% (n=96) had a methodological focus. Most studies exclusively used surveys (n=663; 95.5%), with 88 different surveys identified. Only 31 studies (4.5%) used qualitative or mixed methods. Thematic analysis identified 11 themes related to safety culture dimensions across the methods, with 'Leadership' being the most common. Qualitative and mixed methods approaches were more likely to identify additional dimensions of safety culture not covered by the 11 themes, including improvisation and contextual pressures. DISCUSSION: We assessed the extent to which safety culture dimensions mapped to specific quantitative and qualitative tools and methods of assessing safety culture. No single method or tool appeared to measure all 11 themes of safety culture. Risk of publication bias was high in this review. Future attempts to assess safety culture in hospitals should consider incorporating qualitative methods into survey studies to evaluate this multi-faceted construct.