ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research (May 2021)
Change and Innovation in Healthcare: Findings from Literature
Abstract
Frida Milella,1 Eliana Alessandra Minelli,2 Fernanda Strozzi,2 Davide Croce3,4 1IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milan, Italy; 2University Carlo Cattaneo - LIUC, Castellanza, Italy; 3School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Science, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa; 4Centre for Health Economics, Social and Health Care Management, University Carlo Cattaneo - LIUC, Castellanza, ItalyCorrespondence: Frida Milella Tel +39 347 81 14 414Email [email protected]: Change is an ongoing process in any organizations. Over years, healthcare organizations have been exposed to multiple external stimuli to change (eg, ageing population, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, ongoing Sars-Cov-2 pandemic) that pointed out the need to convert the current healthcare organizational model. Nowadays, the topic is extremely relevant, rendering organizational change an urgency. The work is structured on a double level of analysis. In the beginning, the paper collects the overall literature on the topic of organisational change in order to identify, on the basis of the citation network, the main existing theoretical approaches. Secondly, the analysis attempts to isolate the scientific production related to the healthcare context, by analysing the body of literature outside the identified citation network, divided by clusters of related studies.Methodology: This review adopted a quantitative-based method that employs jointly systematic literature review and bibliographic network analysis. Specifically, the study applied a citation network analysis (CNA) and a co-occurrence keywords analysis. The CNA allowed detecting the most relevant papers published over time, identifying the research streams in literature.Results: The study showed four main findings. Firstly, consistent with past studies, works reviewed pointed out a convergence on the micro-level perspective for change’s analysis. Secondly, an organic viewpoint whereby individual, organization and change’s outcome contribute to any organizational change’s action has been found in its early stage. Thirdly, works reported change combined with innovation’s concept, although the structure of the relationship has not been outlined. Fourth, interestingly, contributions have been limited within the healthcare context.Conclusion: Human dimension is the primary criticality to be managed to impede failure of the re-organizational path. Individuals are not passive recipients of change: individual change acceptance has been found a key input. Few papers discussed healthcare professionals’ behaviour, and those available focused on technology-led changes perspective. In this view, individual acceptance of change within the healthcare context resulted being undeveloped and offers rooms for further analyses.Keywords: change management, organizational change, literature review, Systematic Literature Network Analysis, healthcare
