From Ideation to Standard Practice: Scaling Innovations in Long-Term Services and Supports

Much innovation in the LTSS system has originated at local levels and later reached the national level after testing and support from the government, foundations and others. A new paper reviews five innovative LTSS programs to explore how they were successfully scaled up and implemented in more places. This report builds on the widely accepted model for understanding the expansion of an innovation developed by sociologist E.M. Rogers, who coined the phrase “early adopter.” Its five recommendations adapt Rogers’s framework to selecting and promoting LTSS innovations.