Disruptive Crisis Management lesson from hospital management during the COVID-19 outbreak

ABSTRACT:\r\nHealthcare organizations worldwide were badly hit by the â€oesurprise†of the pandemic.\r\nHospitals in particular are trying hard to manage problems it caused, searching for solutions to\r\nprotect the health of citizens and reorienting operations. The implementation of resilience solutions\r\nin the coping phase and the ability to react promptly and redefine activities is essential. Integrating\r\ncrisis management and resiliency literature, this paper discusses how health organizations were able\r\nto cope with adversity during the crisis.\r\nThe research is conducted through a case study of a large Italian hospital, the Gemelli Polyclinic\r\nFoundation, which was one of the leading hospitals in the Italian response to the pandemic\r\nFindings: The case reports actions taken in order to continue functioning and to maintain core\r\nactivities despite severe adversity. The overall response of the Gemelli was the result of the three\r\ntypes of response: behavioural (effective leadership), cognitive (rapid resource reallocation) and the\r\ncontextual reinforcement (multiagency network response). The authors highlight how an integrative\r\nframework of crisis management and resiliency could be applied to healthcare organizations in the\r\ncoping phase of the pandemic. The experience of the Gemelli can thus be useful for other hospitals\r\nand organizations facing external crises and for overall improvement of crisis management and\r\nresilience. Responding to crisis brings the opportunity to make innovations introduced during\r\nemergencies structural, and embed them moving forward.\r\nResearch limitations: The paper focuses only on the coping phase of the response to the pandemic,\r\nwhereas building long term resilience requires understanding how organizations accumulate\r\nknowledge from crises and adapt to the â€oenew normal†.\r\nCUST_PRACTICAL_IMPLICATIONS__(LIMIT_100_WORDS) :No data available.\r\nCUST_SOCIAL_IMPLICATIONS_(LIMIT_100_WORDS) :No data available.\r\nOriginality: The paper responds to the call for empirical studies to advance knowledge of an\r\nintegrative framework of crisis management and resiliency theories with reference to complex\r\norganizations such as healthcare.