A cross-sectional survey of supports for evidence-informed decision-making in healthcare organisations: a research protocol

Abstract

BackgroundThis protocol builds on the development of a) a framework that identified the various supports (i.e. positions, activities, interventions) that a healthcare organisation or health system can implement for evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) and b) a qualitative study that showed the current mix of supports that some Canadian healthcare organisations have in place and the ones that are perceived to facilitate the use of research evidence in decision-making. Based on these findings, we developed a web survey to collect cross-sectional data about the specific supports that regional health authorities and hospitals in two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec) have in place to facilitate EIDM.Methods/designThis paper describes the methods for a cross-sectional web survey among 32 regional health authorities and 253 hospitals in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario (Canada) to collect data on the current mix of organisational supports that these organisations have in place to facilitate evidence-informed decision-making. The data will be obtained through a two-step survey design: a 10-min survey among CEOs to identify key units and individuals in regard to our objectives (step 1) and a 20-min survey among managers of the key units identified in step 1 to collect information about the activities performed by their unit regarding the acquisition, assessment, adaptation and/or dissemination of research evidence in decision-making (step 2). The study will target three types of informants: CEOs, library/documentation centre managers and all other key managers whose unit is involved in the acquisition, assessment, adaptation/packaging and/or dissemination of research evidence in decision-making. We developed an innovative data collection system to increase the likelihood that only the best-informed respondent available answers each survey question. The reporting of the results will be done using descriptive statistics of supports by organisation type and by province.DiscussionThis study will be the first to collect and report large-scale cross-sectional data on the current mix of supports health system organisations in the two most populous Canadian provinces have in place for evidence-informed decision-making. The study will also provide useful information to researchers on how to collect organisation-level data with reduced risk of self-reporting bias.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13012-014-0146-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Empowering Researchers and Knowledge-producing Organizations for Evidence-informed Health Policy Making: Interventions in the Iranian Health System

“…Therefore, empowering them in knowledge exploitation activities is imperative (25). A key requirement in these initiatives is taking measures for disseminating the knowledge obtained from research (26). In this regard, one of the necessary interventions is to enhance the understanding of knowledge translation in this group.…”

Organizational supports for knowledge translation in paediatric health centres and research institutes: insights from a Canadian environmental scan

“…Organizational commitments, an EIHC culture, infrastructure to ensure access to evidence, EIHC competencies and linkages to expertise (e.g. researchers, knowledge brokers, librarians, others) are considered foundational for enabling, sustaining and evaluating consistent organizational EIHC [9,10]. Appropriate investment in both human and financial resources are thought to produce the best chance for successful organizational support of KT [8].…”

“…Appropriate investment in both human and financial resources are thought to produce the best chance for successful organizational support of KT [8]. However, no empirical evidence exists on the effectiveness of different types of supports to inform their prioritization [9,10].…”

“…Organizational supports are being used increasingly to address the challenges health systems face in moving evidence into action [5,10], but easily identifying these supports across the KT literature is difficult. To our knowledge, no organizational surveys on the topic have been published.…”

“…To our knowledge, no organizational surveys on the topic have been published. A single Canadian study protocol from 2014 provides preliminary directions for conducting such a survey [10]; the findings of this study were not published because of a low response rate (M. Ouimet, personal communication, September 14, 2018). A second U.S. study protocol in the child and family services sector described aims to examine a limited number of KT support strategies (i.e.…”