Innovation Readiness Maturity of Long-Term Care Organizations in the Netherlands: Insights From the Maastricht...

To examine how organizations assess their innovation readiness (IR) maturity using the Maastricht Innovation Readiness Approach (MIRA) Questionnaire.

Cross-sectional study in 21 Dutch long-term care organizations.

Health care professionals with insight into their organization's IR completed the questionnaire, including those in care, management, human resource management, communication, and client representation.

Data were collected using the MIRA Questionnaire, based on the IR framework, containing 4 domains: strategic direction, organization of innovation, leadership for innovation, and learning climate. The response options include 5 IR positions: "not," "informal," "occasionally," "consistently," and "optimally," reflecting a progression in IR maturity and a "no insight" position.

The MIRA Questionnaire was completed by 409 participants in 21 long-term care organizations. Across nearly all (n = 20) organizations, "consistently" was most frequently selected (mean [after which is M] = #21, 38%), particularly within the "strategic direction" domain (M = #21, 43%). In the "learning environment" domain, however, the "not" and "informal" positions were most frequently chosen (M = #21, 34%), suggesting that these factors were either not implemented or put in practice or only implemented without formalization. Questions about the active involvement of managers and intended end users (clients and family members) received more frequent responses in the "not and informal" positions (M = #21, 47%, 21%) and fewer responses in the "occasionally, consistently, and optimally" positions (M = #21, 25%, 59%).

The main findings indicate that most health care organizations' attention goes to strategy and organizing for innovation but less to leadership and the learning climate. This might indicate a temporal order in organizing the IR factors. Improving IR requires balanced attention to all factors of the IR framework. MIRA can support organizations by identifying specific steps to improve IR. Additional research is necessary to longitudinally track whether and how organizations translate MIRA use into actions that improve their IR. Policymakers can utilize these findings to develop sector-wide programs that promote learning for sustainable IR.