Resilience in Healthcare (RiH): a longitudinal research programme protocol

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Services Research
• Systems Science

Background:

• Traditional research on healthcare quality often focuses on isolated elements, failing to capture system complexity and variability.
• Existing approaches struggle to address the inherent complexity and resilience of healthcare systems.
• A new research paradigm is needed to understand the multifaceted nature of healthcare quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Resilience in Healthcare (RiH) research program as a novel approach to understanding healthcare quality.
• To model the capacity of healthcare systems and stakeholders to adapt to changes, variations, and disruptions.
• To advance the understanding and improvement of high-quality healthcare provision.

Main Methods:

• Adoption of a comprehensive, 5-year longitudinal research program.
• Engagement in multi-site, cross-national studies with long-term multidisciplinary collaboration.
• Combination of meta-analysis of Norwegian research with cross-country comparisons (Australia, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK).

Main Results:

• Development of a Resilience in Healthcare (RiH) framework to identify processes and outcomes contributing to high-quality care.
• Establishment of a collaborative learning framework for systematic translation of research findings into practice.
• Illumination of how healthcare systems and stakeholders adapt to ensure quality care amidst disruptions.

Conclusions:

• The RiH approach offers a fresh perspective capable of capturing the complexity of healthcare quality.
• Modeling healthcare system resilience is crucial for advancing high-quality care.
• Collaborative and multidisciplinary research is essential for understanding and improving healthcare quality.