Emergency Medical Services Leadership Perspectives on Implementation of Evidence-Based Guidelines: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Prehospital evidence-based guidelines (EBGs) are developed to optimize clinical outcomes for emergency medical services (EMS) patients. However, widespread implementation of EBGs is often inconsistent. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the baseline knowledge and practices of EMS leaders related to EBG implementation. Methods: This was a qualitative study using focus groups to assess prehospital implementation awareness and knowledge. Participants were EMS EBG authors, EMS medical directors, and EMS professional organization leaders. Focus groups were held via video conference, audio recorded, and transcribed. Thematic coding used domains and constructs of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Results: Six focus groups were conducted with a total of 18 participants. A total of 1,044 codes were analyzed. Process was the CFIR domain with the most codes (n = 350, 33.5%), followed by the inner setting (the EMS agency; n = 250, 23.9%), characteristics of the intervention (n = 203, 19.4%), outer setting (the health care system and community the EMS agency serves, and the broader national EMS professional context; n = 141, 13.5%), and characteristics of individuals (n = 100, 9.6%). The ten most frequent constructs across all domains were: reflecting and evaluating, executing, cosmopolitanism, planning, external policy and incentives, design quality and packaging, learning climate, culture, complexity, and other personal attributes. Conclusion: EMS leadership and stakeholder views on EBG implementation identified dominant themes related to the process of implementation and the culture and learning/implementation climate of EMS agencies. Opinions were mixed on the utility of the CFIR as a potential guide for EMS implementation. Further work is required to gain the frontline EMS clinician perspective on implementation and tie key themes to quantitative prehospital implementation outcomes.

Automated summary

This study aimed to assess the baseline knowledge and practices of EMS leaders related to the implementation of evidence-based guidelines (EBGs) in prehospital settings. Through qualitative research using focus groups, EMS EBG authors, EMS medical directors, and EMS professional organization leaders were surveyed. The results showed that the process of implementation and the culture and learning/implementation climate of EMS agencies were the dominant themes related to EBG implementation.