COVID-19

Step 5: Get the Word Out; Assessment Plan

Messaging and communications vehicles to get information to stakeholders and implement the change.

*Corresponds to Quick Implementation Guide Sheet 6: Stp 5 – Get the Word Out and Sheet 7: Stp 5 – Assessment Plan*

You’re ready to hand off decision(s) and disseminate the information to stakeholders.

Dissemination involves “targeted distribution of information and materials to a specific practice audience…to “scale up” and sustain knowledge and the associated interventions.”[i]

Communicating to Stakeholders

Build trust by demonstrating knowledge and understanding of stakeholders’ points of view. When developing messaging, reflect on what you learned about their:

  • Values
  • Incentives (how they will benefit)
  • Concerns
  • Barriers and how they’ll be addressed
  • Use personal pronouns (“I” or “We”) rather than institutional nouns (“The Department of Health,” “this hospital”).

“Pass the Baton”

AHRQ’s TeamSTEPPS communications framework includes mnemonics to check the completeness, clarity, and utility of the team’s messaging.

The mnemonic “baton” helps team members check that they have the information they need to communicate team decisions.[1]

Background
Action
Timing
Owner(s)
Next steps

Communications

It is especially important to put a face to a name for decision-makers to reassure stakeholders and commit them to actions.

Create redundancy – people get their information in different ways, and often need to receive it numerous times to process and integrate it into what they do.[ii]

You may need to involve the following departments/roles:

  • Communications
  • Marketing
  • Public Affairs (on HIMT: Public Information Officer (PIO); Liaison Officer)
  • IT
  • Facility Management (on HIMT: Operations Section Chief, Safety Officer)

(some of the following communications vehicles may be applicable across categories)

Visual Communications Verbal Communications
  • Charts and diagram – printed/electronic/app
  • Infographic – printed/electronic
  • Poster
  • Hospital channel
  • Flair to show commitment (e.g. badges, poster with signatures, pins)
  • Signage (e.g. sign on bins for depositing masks for reprocessing, COVID unit precautions, entryway doors for symptomatic patients, designated hallways, etc.)
  • Charts
  • Videos
  • Demonstrations
  • Interactive module

 
  • Infection Prevention rounding (daily/weekly, especially to affected areas like EDs, ICUs, COVID units)
  • Internal-use website
  • List serv
  • Emails (hospital, unit, department, role)
  • Department/unit meeting
  • Handouts/summaries
  • Checklist – printed/electronic/app
  • Facility/institution Town Hall
  • Information session
  • Lecture
  • EHR prompt
  • EHR banner
  • Text push
  • Digital signage (e.g. LED)
  • PA system

Assessment Plan

Decide how you’re going to measure whether the policy is being enacted as intended, and whether it is having the intended effect. This may involve IT and the HIMT’s Operations Section Chief and Planning Section Chief.

  • Performance measures
  • Outcome measures
  • Data – who, how, when:
    • Collection
    • Analysis
    • Report

Quick Implementation Guide

Sheet 6: Stp 5 – Get the Word Out

  • How to craft communication vehicles and messaging
  • Column B pre-populates from ‘Stp 4 – How (negotiation)’ (Sheet 5), column M (‘Negotiated Agreement’)
  • Columns C-G entered by user. Cells under these columns may have >1 idea or activity per cell

Sheet 7: Stp 5 – Assessment Plan

  • Continuation of sheet 6/step 5 ‘Get the Word Out’
  • How to measure the change
  • Completed as part of dissemination plan (before communications launch)
  • Columns B-C pre-populate from ‘Stp 5 – Get the Word Out’
  • User completes columns D-G with team

 

[1] “I pass” from the TeamSTEPPS mnemonic relates to direct patient care and so was removed for this example.

[i] Center for Research in Implementation Science and Prevention (CRISP), www.ucdenver.edu/implementation

[ii] Pronovost PJ, Berenholtz SM, Needham DM. Translating evidence into practice: a model for large scale knowledge translation. BMJ. 2008;337:a1714. Epub 2008/10/06. PubMed PMID: 18838424.