Measuring Organizational Capacity to Accelerate Health Care Innovation in Academic Health Centers

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Organizational Behavior
• Innovation Management

Background:

• Academic health centers face financial pressures, necessitating rapid innovation in care delivery.
• Limited guidance exists on organizational factors driving accelerated healthcare innovation.
• The study addresses this gap by developing a scale to assess innovation capacity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conceptualize, develop, and preliminarily test the Accelerated Healthcare Innovation Capacity scale.
• To identify key organizational determinants facilitating high-impact healthcare innovations.
• To provide a tool for evaluating and enhancing innovation capacity in academic health centers.

Main Methods:

• Instrument development followed a standardized process, including expert panel review for content validity.
• A survey was administered to 53 administrators, clinicians, and faculty at an academic health center.
• Data analysis included reliability (Cronbach's α), internal consistency, and construct validity (exploratory factor analysis).

Main Results:

• Expert panels achieved high agreement (S-CVI = 0.91) on the scale's content relevance.
• The scale demonstrated high reliability with Cronbach's α = 0.941.
• Exploratory factor analysis supported a multidimensional framework (Culture, Structure, Policy) for healthcare innovation support.

Conclusions:

• The Accelerated Healthcare Innovation Capacity scale is a reliable and valid instrument.
• Healthcare innovation support is a complex, multidimensional construct.
• Findings have implications for research, managerial practice, and staff development in quality management and organizational change.