Table 2.

Implementation strategies

Appointment of a local champion	Each participating site nominated a key contact person who would liaise with the study project officer to coordinate project related activities, drive implementation onsite and provide feedback to the project officer.
Educational outreach	The study project officer delivered a face-to-face education session to staff at each participating aged care facility over one to two visits within the first three months of the project. In some instances, residents were also invited. The learning objectives of this session was to understand; the function of vitamin D, the causes and extent of vitamin D deficiency in Australia, the effects of vitamin D deficiency and groups that are at risk and to identify sources and understand recommended intakes of vitamin D and calcium. The educational session was developed by the research team using the most up to date evidence and was also made available online: http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/cdpc/resources/facility-staff.php.
Educational resources	Educational posters, brochures and study pens were provided to each site to circulate to their staff, residents and family members. These resources and a short educational video were available online: sydney.edu.au/medicine/cdpc/resources.
Audit and feedback	Medication charts audits were provided by servicing pharmacists at six month intervals to establish the proportion of residents at each participating facility that were prescribed an adequate dose of vitamin D (Table 1). De-identified reports were provided to the investigators who analysed the data to establish the prevalence of vitamin D supplement use at the end of each six month period (4 audits in total). This information was reported back to key stakeholders via published study newsletters throughout the project period.
Expert opinion leader	All communication with GPs and pharmacists (via fax or email) was signed by an expert geriatrician to add credibility to the information being provided as this strategy has some observational evidence of effect [30] and direct contact was not feasible. This included communication regarding audit results and the availability of online resources to encourage the consideration of vitamin D for their residents.
Facilitated quality improvement	In the second six months of the intervention the project officer met with the leadership team at each site to discuss barriers to implementation and feasible strategies to improve the uptake of vitamin D supplement use. This information was summarised into a quality improvement plan for each site. Since no more than two separate visits to each site was feasible for this study, progress on the implementation of derived strategies was discussed with the nominated champion during one to two follow up phone calls from the project officer.