Therapy decision-making for patients with chronic diseases can be difficult. Such patients usually live with their illness(es) all their life, and therapies can only help them improve their condition by managing symptoms, not curing them. Patient-oriented approaches are common to caring for people with chronic conditions because patients’ priorities become relevant means of prioritizing therapies in the absence of a cure. While such type of approach is shown to be effective, it does not leverage evidence on the success of given therapies to achieve specific similar patient goals in the past. Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is a concept that was introduced to the medical field in the early 90s to invalidate previously accepted tests and therapies and replace them with new, more powerful, more accurate, more efficacious, and safer ones. Unfortunately, despite the prevalence of patient-oriented approaches for patients with chronic diseases, data collected on patients is not systematically leveraged to support therapy decisions. Combining evidence-based decision-making and patient-oriented approaches could potentially further improve patient outcomes by leveraging the most up-to-date data to recommend and discuss therapy options for patients with chronic conditions. The development and implementation of Learning Health Systems (LHS) is another solution to improving patient outcomes, one that the US Institute of Medicine strongly recommends. The development and implementation of a LHS to support therapy choice for patients with chronic conditions could improve related decisions by fostering continuous learning regarding which therapy may help better achieve which patient goals. However, a learning process that systematically leverages a relevant basis of evidence to support patient-oriented approaches has yet to be defined. As such, this study aims at articulating a learning process for therapy decision-making in the context of chronic conditions. The result is framework and a demonstration of its application using the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) and synthetic data.

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There is a pandemic of low-value clinical care that threatens the sustainability of our publicly funded healthcare systems. Over 30% of the health services provided to patients provide no benefit or may actually result in harm. Health services research is needed to critically evaluate our clinical practices and programs to ensure we create systems that consistently deliver high-value care. Unlike drug trials, health services research is complicated by enormous heterogeneity across cultures, environments, behaviours and systems. Ideally, local research communities should devise and conduct health services research to ensure that both the research questions and outcomes are relevant to community members, and thus more likely to result in sustainable healthcare systems. Embedded researcher models are emerging as a viable approach to supporting local research activities. Embedded researchers are part of the community they serve, provide research expertise to local investigators and community members, and help develop local research systems that facilitate health services research activities. While they may still collaborate with academic partners, this is not necessary for their research success. This thesis documents the transformation of a large community hospital in Ontario into a learning health centre through the use of an embedded researcher model. The first part of the thesis is focused on the results of incorporating an embedded research plan into the hospital’s new antimicrobial stewardship program. The research that emerges from this work contributes new knowledge about the value of antimicrobial stewardship to important patient outcomes such as reduced lengths of hospital stay and rates of Clostridium difficile infections. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the implementation of all the necessary components needed to support a learning health centre and how an embedded researcher model facilitated this transformation and could be used by any similar organization to achieve the same result. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Over 30% of the health services provided by our healthcare systems does not benefit and may actually harm patients. Health services research is therefore a necessary activity required to reduce this waste. In Ontario, over 65% of patients receive their acute care in large community-based hospitals, and yet, these hospitals have minimal research activity and capacity despite repeated attempts by the academic research community to engage these institutions through a variety of collaborative models such as integrated knowledge translation. This thesis provides a blueprint for the transformation of a large community hospital into a learning health centre through the use of a locally created, locally relevant, embedded researcher model. Starting with a proof of concept through the systematic evaluation of an antimicrobial stewardship program, the thesis ends with a ‘how to’ guide for the implementation of the foundational elements needed to support health services research in similar organizations.

Problématique : La rétroaction, qui s’inscrit dans un système d’amélioration de la performance des services infirmiers (SAPSI), vise à restituer des données aux équipes interprofessionnelles pour qu’elles les analysent et réalisent un plan d’action pour améliorer leur performance. La rétroaction pose deux problèmes aux organisations de santé : ses issues présentent une variabilité marquée qui demeure en partie inexpliquée; et, la conception et la mise en œuvre actuelle des systèmes de rétroaction ne prennent pas en compte sa dynamique complexe, en particulier la dimension sociale, les interactions sociotechniques, et leurs transformations liées au contexte. Nous postulons que la compréhension de cette dynamique permettrait d’expliquer différentes configurations de ces systèmes et leurs issues variées. Le but de cette thèse est de développer une théorie explicative et critique de la rétroaction aux équipes interprofessionnelles qui présente sa dynamique et les interrelations avec le SAPSI. Les questionnements formulés pour atteindre ce but ont été établis sur la base d’une revue rapide réaliste critique de la littérature. Méthode : Cette étude de cas multiples qualitative réaliste critique comporte trois cas hétérogènes et 98 professionnels d’un hôpital universitaire. Cinq méthodes de collecte de données ont été réalisées, incluant 120 heures d’observation participante, 82 documents, 4 focus groupes, 26 entretiens semi-dirigés et 15 questionnaires. L’analyse intra et inter cas, menée durant la collecte de données, a procédé selon une approche comparative et chronologique par analyse thématique, questionnement analytique et modélisation systémique pour produire une théorie explicative. Résultats : La théorie explicative modélise l’interaction récursive des structures décisionnelles, de mécanismes sociotechniques et de stratégies émergentes de médiation qui ont (re)positionné les soins infirmiers, mobilisé des ressources et priorisé une vision et des objectifs infirmiers complémentaires au niveau des unités cliniques et de la Direction des soins dès la conception du SAPSI et en continu. Selon les structures décisionnelles, centralisées ou distribuées, les issues de la rétroaction étaient conformes aux attentes et maintenaient leur contexte ; ou, présentaient l’émergence de solutions originales et transformaient leur contexte. Trois mécanismes sociotechniques ont été identifiés : (1) certains acteurs s’adaptaient aux controverses alors que d’autres les adressaient ; (2) certains acteurs empilaient les impératifs et d’autres tendaient à transformer leur contexte et leurs pratiques cliniques ; (3) certains acteurs ajoutaient des intermédiaires techniques qui maintenaient leurs interrelations et d’autres ajoutaient des intermédiaires hybrides qui les transformaient. Les issues de la rétroaction ont transformé le contexte et les mécanismes de la rétroaction et du SAPSI, et inversement. Conclusion : La rétroaction aux équipes interprofessionnelles est un système sociotechnique complexe. Le projet d’améliorer la performance implique que des acteurs déploient des stratégies pour en déplacer d’autres. Ces acteurs et leurs pratiques ont été rendus invisibles dans de nombreuses théories d’Audit & Feedback contemporaines, au profit du domaine technique. À travers l’identification et la critique de valeurs, d’hypothèses et de conception implicites de la rétroaction aux équipes interprofessionnelles et d’un SAPSI, cette thèse met en lumière des dimensions centrales qui sont sociales, liées aux interactions sociotechniques et aux transformations. / Issue: Feedback, as part of a nursing performance improvement system (NPIS), aims to return data to interprofessional teams for subsequent analysis and action planning to improve their performance. Feedback poses two problems for healthcare organizations: its outcomes present a marked variability that remains partly unexplained; and current design and implementation of feedback systems does not consider its complex dynamics, including its varied social processes, socio-technical interactions, and context-related transformations. We postulate that understanding these dynamics would help explain different feedback-related configurations and their varied outcomes. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an explanatory and critical theory of feedback to interprofessional teams that describes its dynamics and interrelations with an NPIS. To achieve this goal, a rapid critical realist review of the literature substantiated the articulation of three research questions. Method: A critical realist qualitative multiple-case study was conducted with three heterogeneous cases and 98 professionals in a university-affiliated hospital. Five methods of data collection were deployed, comprising 120 hours of participant observation, 82 documents, four focus groups, 26 semi-structured interviews and 15 questionnaires. Intra- and inter-case analysis, concurrent with data collection, and from a comparative and chronological perspective, combined qualitative thematic analysis, analytical questioning and systemic modelling to produce an explanatory theory. Results: The resultant explanatory theory presents a recursive interaction of decision-making structures, socio-technical mechanisms, and emerging mediation strategies that (re)positioned nursing care, mobilized resources, and prioritized a nursing vision and objectives, both within clinical units and with management, from the initial creation of the NPIS and onwards. Depending on whether decision-making structures were centralized or distributed, feedback outcomes were either in line with expectations and maintained their context; or gave rise to original solutions and transformed their context. Three socio-technical mechanisms are central to the theory: (1) some actors adapted to controversies, while others addressed them; (2) some actors responded directly to imperatives, while others tended to transform their context and clinical practices; and (3) some actors added technical intermediaries that maintained their interrelationships, while others added hybrid intermediaries that transformed them. The outcomes of feedback transformed its context, feedback mechanisms and NPIS, and vice versa. Conclusion: Feedback to interprofessional teams is a complex socio-technical system. Nursing performance improvement involves actors deploying strategies to displace others. Contemporary Audit & Feedback theories tend to conceal some social actors and their practices and to emphasize technical aspects of feedback systems. The identification and critique of values, assumptions and unspoken design issues that are inherent to feedback practices with interprofessional teams and NPIS highlight central dimensions that are social, linked to socio-technical interactions and transformative.