Hospital Innovations in the Light of Patient Engagement. Insights from the Organizational Field

Nowadays, National Healthcare Systems are confronted with an increased demand for high quality and patient centred services worldwide, but the limits of resources challenge their sustainability. The mandate to “do more with less” encourages policy makers, healthcare managers and professionals to look for innovative ways to redesign healthcare services in order to meet the challenges of the new social and economic trends. In this scenario, healthcare researchers and policy makers increasingly acknowledge patient engagement as a pivotal lever to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare provision. The chapter presents a frame of the current trends and challenges related to the development of sustainable innovation in healthcare by specifically focusing on the hospital change from the perspective of both new hospital positioning in the wider healthcare ecosystem and organizational reengineering. Hospital innovation is discussed in terms of its connection with the concept of engagement, which is articulated both at multiple levels and across multiple stakeholders composing the healthcare ecosystem. The work is grounded on the analysis of the recent theoretical perspectives in healthcare innovation and on some illustrations and examples from relevant organizational case studies.