Implementing best practice for peripheral intravenous catheter use in Australian Emergency Departments: evaluation of quality improvement interventions

This project will evaluate the quality improvement interventions that are embedded in an implementation science trial. The aim of the trial is to reduce unnecessary peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) insertion and improve use of the devices on patients in nine participating hospitals’ emergency departments (EDs) in Australia. The quality improvement interventions have been demonstrated to be effective locally and have been recommended by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) PIVC Clinical Care Standard. The hospital site-specific quality improvement intervention will be based upon our previous research and the ACSQHC Clinical Care Standard. Evaluation of implementation will be conducted for each hospital site post intervention using validated frameworks. The evaluation of the implementation intervention at each site will be structured using the RE-AIM framework. This framework evaluates the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance of an intervention and together, determines the impact of the intervention. This will be conducted for each site and each trial cluster (three sites each).