The fourth mission of hospitals and the role of researchers as innovation drivers in the public healthcare sector (original) (raw)

Innovation in hospitals: a survey of the literature

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2007

Abstract: The literature on innovation in hospitals is relatively extensive and varied. The purpose of this article is to conduct a critical survey, and in particular to highlight the functional and occupational bias that characterises it, whereby the sole object of innovation is medical care and that innovation is essentially the work of doctors. In order to achieve this objective, four different (complementary or competing) concepts of the hospital are considered. In the first, the hospital is seen in terms of its production function, in the second as a set of technical capacities, in the third as an information system and in the fourth as a service provider and a hub in a wider system of healthcare. In the latter approach, hospitals are regarded as combinative providers of diverse and dynamic services, able to go beyond their own institutional boundaries by becoming part of larger networks of healthcare provision, which are themselves diverse and dynamic. This approach makes it possible to extend the model of hospital innovation to incorporate new forms of innovation and new actors in the innovation process, in accordance with the Schumpeterian tradition of openness.

Hospital Management and the Creation of Value Through Clinical Research

2014

La investigación en el ámbito sanitario debería influir en la buena práctica clínica, sin embargo, medir el impacto de la generación de conocimiento en la satisfacción y calidad de vida de la sociedad ha demostrado ser un proceso complejo de abordar. En este trabajo se pretende analizar el efecto de la actividad investigadora, en un hospital público español, sobre la satisfacción de sus pacientes. Abriendo también la puerta a estudios posteriores que vinculen la generación de conocimiento a los indicadores de rendimiento propios de este tipo de organizaciones. PALABRAS CLAVE: Gestión Hospitalaria. Indicadores de opinión. Rendimiento. Generación de conocimiento. SUMMARY: Healthcare research should have a bearing on good clinical practice, but to measure the impact of knowledge generation on the quality of life of society has been shown to be a complex process to approach. This article attempts to analyse the effect that research activity has on patient satisfaction in a Spanish public hospital. It also opens the door for further studies that associate knowledge generation with the specific performance indicators of this type of organisation.

The open nature of innovation in the hospital sector: The role of external collaboration networks

The paper aims to identify the main drivers of innovation in the hospital sector. It further explores the mechanisms shaping how open hospitals are to external collaboration towards innovation. The paper pulls together data on organizational flexibility and innovation from 95 hospitals from the public sector in Portugal, collected through a survey and interviews to hospital boards. The main findings suggest that external cooperation is the major driver of innovation, while technology is rather seen as an enabler of innovation in hospitals. Results also highlight knowledge management, trust building, communication and focus on the user as the major mechanisms for opening up innovation. Within the context of open innovation, hospitals jointly with other health services, universities and users have the opportunity to shape policy and practice to accelerate innovation. Incentives are needed to drive systemic and cultural changes, as well as to establish a common platform for external.

The influence of innovations co-financed from the European Union funds on the development of health care institutions – a regional approach

Zeszyty Naukowe, 2022

The article deals with the subject of innovation in theoretical and practical terms. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of innovations co-financed from EU funds on the development of the health care sector in the Łódź region. Design/methodology/approach: The article is based on literature studies, the results of literary studies from empirical research and own research of the author. The aim was achieved by the use of CATI technique (CATI-Computer Assisted Telephone Interview). Findings: Innovations in health care institutions are a necessary condition for overcoming the challenges of the contemporary environment. They contribute to the improvement of the quality of provided services, expansion of the examined entities (in terms of medical equipment and infrastructure) and increasing the level of accessibility to medical services. Research limitations/implications: The primary limitation of the conducted research is the lack of possibility to generalize the results to the entire group of entities operating in Poland. The results may serve as an assessment of the current status regarding the functioning of health care institutions in the Łódź region. Practical implications: The health level of a society is closely related to the level of economic development. A healthy, capable and long-living society is able to produce more goods and services, which has a direct impact on development, while a high level of development creates the possibility of allocating more resources to the health sector. Originality/value: This article presents original empirical findings on the sources of funding, types and areas, and effects of innovation ventures in hospitals. The efforts to improve the understanding and implementation of innovation in hospitals are significantly hindered by the lack of solid scientific evidence. Therefore, a framework for further research has been created to confirm the urgent need for directions in the development of innovation in the health sector.

Mapping innovation dynamics in hospitals

Research Policy, 2005

This article draws on a notion of the hospital as a complex service provider and healthcare system hub in order to examine the question of innovation in hospitals. It puts forward a relatively simple framework for analysing hospital output, in which the medical function is incorporated into a complex system of other constituent services that make use of different types of technologies. This analytical framework is used to reveal the multiple sources of innovation and the main organising principles driving innovation within hospitals.

Public-private partnerships in hospital innovation: what lessons for hospital management?

Healthcare systems in all developed countries are facing enormous socio-economic challenges. The development of cooperation between healthcare providers and of publicprivate partnerships (PPPs) has emerged as a priority area in the restructuring of the healthcare landscape everywhere. However, these public-private partnerships are regarded essentially in economic terms, as means of cost reduction. This approach, in which such partnerships are viewed solely as a 'black box', fails to do justice to the multiplicity of innovation and learning dynamics at work. Drawing on an in-depth case study of a PPP and on theoretical models of innovation in services, we attempt to breach the black box. This 'forced entry' is the starting point, firstly, for an investigation of the complex and many-sided nature of hospital innovation associated with certain PPPs and, secondly, the formulation of a number of recommendations for hospital management.

Innovation in the Health System

Public Health and Welfare: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 2000

This chapter discusses the main findings of five empirical studies focusing on local health innovation systems in Brazil. It focuses on the articulation of service and manufacturing segments within the Health complex and the other organizations that constitute a Local Innovation and Production System (LIPS) and discusses the learning, capacity building and innovation processes and their effective and potential impact on the local territory. The findings suggest that the types and intensity of interactions are closely related to the characteristics of what can be called a local cognitive territory. The directions of capacity building and scientific and technological evolution are directly influenced by conflicts among individuals and groups. The influence of these power relations, which are often associated with diverging private and public (collective) interests, highlights the importance of the institutional and policy dimensions for mediation and for promoting an evolution of the system that favors social inclusion and efficiency.

Can R&D be identified and measured in services? Empirical evidence from university hospitals

Science and Public Policy, 2014

This paper proposes an in-depth analysis of some of the constraints on case studies conducted at French university hospital services, aiming to better understand R&D in their services. We begin with an analysis of the intangibility of inputs (knowledge and information) and outputs that confirms the difficulty in recognizing innovations based on the social sciences and humanities. This empirical study verified that there was a diversity of actors who contributed to the generation and increase of the stock of knowledge. Concerning R&D funding, it is noted that R&D in services is not always planned in terms of a formal project. Finally, one could argue that advances in research allow the recognition of different relationships at the same time as the boundaries of R&D in services are expanded, allowing a better measurement of its results.

Minnesota innovation survey at the Brazilian Hospital services company

2018

Promoting innovation is bringing to the field of organizations (public or private) a strategic bias recommended for decision-making. Knowing their determinants factors is one of the essential tasks that managers face due to the high level of complexity involved. The purpose of this study was to present, through the Minnesota Innovation Survey (MIS) method developed by the Minnesota Innovation Research Program (MIRP) of the University of Minnesota in the United States. The characteristics favorable to the innovation environment in University Hospitals agreed to the Brazilian Company of Hospital Services (EBSERH), considered one of the largest public company of public character in health services in Brazil. Seventeen hospitals (43.59%) from a total of 39 branches were surveyed in all regions of the country, through a structured electronic questionnaire containing 83 questions related to the 29 dimensions directed to the development of health innovations. With this, it was sought to determine the main variables related to change in this context. As a result, the characterization of eleven dimensions favorable to innovation in these hospital organizations was verified, with a strong correlation between them, determinants for an innovative environment in public health policies. In terms of contributions, the research developed an essential method for management, control and innovation of health care service providers, which can be used in a wide range of contexts, highlighting the main factors favorable to organizational environments focused on innovative processes, creating a theoretical basis pleasant practice for new research to be carried out using the methodology used.