Organizational approaches to implement rapid change in hospitals to respond to public health emergencies

Abstract

Organizational approaches to implement rapid change in hospitals to respond to public health emergenciesThe COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the need for crisis preparedness among public health systems worldwide. Securing both human and financial resources to improve standards of health care remains a global priority (1-4). Yet, efforts to improve preparedness lack the necessary frameworks to develop and sustain improvements in health care systems' processes and outcomes (5,6). The sudden and far-reaching impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted scientists to develop frameworks that aim to adequately prepare hospitals and other health service delivery systems for surges in demand for care. A report on the operational readiness of nations on several indicators of preparedness found that only 57% of 182 countries had the functional capacity to execute crucial emergency-related activities (7). Elements of health care systems that have been implicated in low levels of preparedness have varied, ranging from supply chain failures, workforce shortages, organizational readiness for change, and resource constraints, among others (8,9). The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly impacted these elements. With decades of organizational research on the adoption and implementation of innovative practices, system and organizational scientists are poised to help health care organizations respond to the need for technical, financial, and cultural resources to effectively address public health crises (10-12). In this special issue, we embarked on an exploration of health care systems' capacity to respond to increasing public health challenges, to meet the global imperative for more efficient and effective crisis preparedness infrastructure.This special issue on "organizational approaches to implement rapid change in hospitals to respond to public health emergencies" presents conceptual and empirical papers on various approaches that hospitals and other health care organizations could implement to counteract current (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic), ongoing (e.g., HIV, opioid overdose) and emerging epidemics that will impact global health. The purpose of this special issue is to advance Systems, as well as Organizations and Implementation Sciences by developing and testing frameworks that lead to a highly responsive and effective public health system. These interdisciplinary sciences focus on simple to complex systems, and implementation methods that lead to the integration of evidence-based practices. These interventions and resulting policies must necessarily be translated into routine practice in health care organizations.The papers included in this series use different levels of analysis (i.e., individual, group, organization or system) and are informed by different disciplinary frameworks. Despite these differences, all of these papers share a focus on implementing innovation and improving readiness among hospitals and allied health providers to effectively respond to public health emergencies. There are four papers in this series ...