Harnessing Potential: A Systematic Investigation of How and Why Learning Happens in a Health System

The ability to learn is central to innovation and performance across industries, and it is the hallmark feature of the rapidly growing movement toward Learning Health Systems. While learning drivers-such as experimentation, risk-taking, participative decision-making, dialogue, and interaction with the external environment-are well defined, they have received little attention in healthcare contexts.

This study explored the nature of organizational learning within Trillium Health Partners (THP), one of Canada's largest community-based teaching hospital systems.

Formal leaders at THP completed the Organizational Learning Capability instrument. A latent profile analysis identified the number and nature of distinct learning profiles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to develop an empirically grounded explanation of how organizational learning drivers interact to enable-or constrain-learning within the organization.

Of 334 eligible leaders, 231 responded to the survey, and 141 provided sufficient data for inclusion in the analyses. Latent Profile Analysis identified two distinct learning profiles: one with relatively higher perceived learning capability and another with relatively lower perceived capability. Interviews with leaders (n = 12) from both groups described how theoretical factors that influence organizational learning manifest to drive (or derail) learning in practice.

Our systematic investigation into how and why learning occurs within a large community hospital system may support other healthcare systems in developing programs that foster the learning necessary to develop and implement innovative delivery models at scale.