Implementing a perioperative medicine for older people undergoing surgery (POPS) service: A guide for clinical leaders.

Objective: This study aimed to translate previous implementation science research describing the implementation of perioperative medicine for older people undergoing surgery (POPS) services into a format that is comprehensible and relevant to clinical leaders contemplating implementing a POPS service.

Methods: We conducted a multistage expert end-user review process to design a POPS implementation guide. Our expert research team created a draft POPS service implementation guide using previous implementation science research that described the core elements and implementation of a POPS service. Next, we invited multidisciplinary (allied health, anaesthetics, geriatric medicine, nursing and surgery) clinical leaders in perioperative medicine (n = 12) from five contextually different health services to review the guide. These clinical leaders then participated in two rounds of review and refinement of the implementation guide.

Results: The first draft of the POPS service implementation guide was reviewed by clinical leaders (n = 4) with participants querying implementation science-based language and concepts, the format of the guide and its practical use. We revised the guide accordingly, and the next draft was reviewed by the second group of clinical leaders (n = 8). Feedback from the second group review was supportive of the guide's comprehensibility and relevance, and only minor changes were made to the final version of the POPS service implementation guide.

Conclusions: We used an implementation science-based approach to create a POPS service implementation guide that is comprehensible and relevant to clinical leaders in perioperative care. The next steps are to use the guide and assess its utility to support implementation of a POPS service.