Digital health technology enhances resilient behaviour: evidence from the ward

Purpose: In the healthcare management domain, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the role of resilience practices in improving patient safety. The purpose of this paper is to understand the capabilities that enable healthcare resilience and how digital technologies can support these capabilities. Design/methodology/approach: Within- and cross-case research methodology was used to study resilience mechanisms and capabilities in healthcare and to understand how digital health technologies impact healthcare resilience. The authors analyze data from two Italian hospitals through the lens of the operational failure literature and anchor the findings to the theory of dynamic capabilities. Findings: Five different dynamic capabilities emerged as crucial for managing operational failure. Furthermore, in relation to these capabilities, medical, organizational and patient-related knowledge surfaced as major enablers. Finally, the findings allowed the authors to better explain the role of knowledge in healthcare resilience and how digital technologies boost this role. Practical implications: When trying to promote a culture of patient safety, the research suggests healthcare managers should focus on promoting and enhancing resilience capabilities. Furthermore, when evaluating the role of digital technologies, healthcare managers should consider their importance in enabling these dynamic capabilities. Originality/value: Although operations management (OM) research points to resilience as a crucial behavior in the supply chain, this is the first research that investigates the concept of resilience in healthcare systems from an OM perspective, with only a few authors having studied similar concepts, such as “workaround” practices.