Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on CSR Activities of Healthcare Providers

Abstract

(1) Background: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is important for every company that cares for sustainable structures. Healthcare providers especially have made social responsibility their goal. However, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted different activities within the healthcare sector including CSR and its monitoring. However, theory-driven CSR research within the healthcare sector is scarce and monitoring requires a structured understanding of the processes. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the CSR practices and activities which healthcare providers have implemented in an exemplified country namely Germany and the effect of the pandemic in this process. (2) Methods: Participants were sampled based on their field of care (general, psychiatric, or rehabilitation), the type of organization (public, private, or non-profit), and group membership. A total of 18 healthcare providers were initially recruited, out of which nine participated in the interviews. They represent companies with yearly revenue of between EUR 110 million and EUR 6 billion, and have between 900 and 73,000 employees. (3) Results: CSR-related activities were postponed due to times of crisis. There was a necessity to rapidly digitalize processes. Frequent and precise communication turned out to be important for keeping employees’ well-being, motivation, and satisfaction levels high. Environmental efforts were counteracted by new hygienic requirements and a shift in priorities. Many study participants expressed the hope that after the pandemic, newly established methods, processes, and structures (e.g., digital meetings, quicker and more inclusive communication) would be maintained and developed further. (4) Conclusions: The pandemic has been challenging and at the same time, these challenges also created opportunities to strike a new path using the learnings to overcome future health-related or economic crises.

Cambios en las prácticas de responsabilidad social empresarial en tiempos de pandemia por COVID-19

“…Vale la pena mencionar que el sector financiero y de salud aumentaron sus porcentajes; la literatura empírica soporta esto en términos de ver las crisis como oportunidades para mejorar la reputación corporativa (Fernández-Feijóo Souto, 2009); para el caso del sector salud, dado el impulso económico que recibió de parte del Estado para aumentar la capacidad instalada de camas UCI, se dio la oportunidad para mostrar esfuerzos complementarios para combatir la pandemia. Sin embargo, específicamente las actividades de RSE para otros sectores, al igual que en el resto del mundo, se redujeron (Deselaers et al, 2023).…”

Patients’ Post-/Long-COVID Symptoms, Vaccination and Functional Status—Findings from a State-Wide Online Screening Study

“…However, reviewing the current evidence, we can conclude that vaccinations are just one strategy to prevent severe infections and the long-term, post-acute sequelae of infection [ 26 ]. Attempts to overcome post-/long-COVID should take more options than vaccinations into account, such as behavioral interventions and medical rehabilitation treatments addressing the coping mechanisms, and appropriate, safe patient behavior is required [ 13 , 24 , 34 ]. This is especially important because limited workability is problematic not only for the individual (because of limited social participation and economic demands) but also for society (because of limited productivity and skills shortage, and costly reintegration demands to be covered by the social welfare system).…”

“…Similarly, research on life satisfaction found a bidirectional association between clinical and psychological factors, indicating that post-/long-COVID symptoms affect mental well-being but also the other way around, illustrating a vicious circle [ 12 ] in terms of that experiences feed back into setting goals towards adopting and maintaining behaviors [ 13 ]. This is especially important in patients who suffer from post-/long-COVID fatigue, associated with subsequent mental health issues, and if patients do not recover well (e.g., [ 3 , 14 ]).…”

“…Accordingly, vaccination before infection appears to be a partial protection in the post-acute phase of the disease [ 21 ]. However, the current evidence is ambiguous, as not all previous studies found a relationship between post-/long-COVID and vaccination status [ 22 ], but rather individual behavior prior to the SARS-Cov-2 infection [ 23 ], former social-cognitive beliefs [ 13 , 24 ] or pre-existing cognitive and neurological vulnerabilities [ 25 ].…”

“…Different theories, such as the compensatory carry-over action model and health beliefs, explain irrational decisions by considering different facets [ 13 , 24 ]. This is imperative for adequate communication strategies that provide objective information about the usefulness of vaccinations and when to get vaccinated.…”