INNOVATION'S SUSTAINABILITY

How to successfully sustain innovations in healthcare organizations

How to successfully sustain innovations in healthcare organizations

Introduction

Healthcare organizations can successfully sustain the innovations in their system, processes, and services by using productive innovation sustainability techniques. Healthcare organizations constantly bring innovations in their system, services, and processes to remain competitive and deliver competent services to patients and other customers. There are numbers of technological changes occurring in the healthcare systems of western countries. An innovation is the focal point of the healthcare industry because it helps healthcare organizations to scan the technological environment, absorb the information from the environment, and transform the technology into innovation. The sustainable innovations benefit the patients as well as the organization. From an organizational perspective, sustainable innovations increase the, efficacy, efficiency, productivity, and profitability of healthcare organizations. On the other hand, from the patient perspective, sustainable innovations improve the patient's health and decrease the chances of illness (Lansisalmi et al., 2006, p. 66-67). Adoption and execution of innovations varies from organization to organization. Innovations have different adoption rate. The adoption and execution rate of innovation depends on the factors that have been focused or ignored. Organization ignores some factors while bringing or introducing the innovations in its processes, system, and services (Greenhalgh et al., 2004, p. 594). For successful adoption and execution of innovative services, healthcare organizations must take into account various factors that can ensure the sustainability of innovative services.

Discussion

Healthcare organizations consider several factors while introducing innovative services to make the adoption and execution of innovative services easy and sustainable. From the perspective of service organization, innovation is a unique characteristic/ feature/ service that benefits the customer and organization (Coughlin et al., 2007, p. 1811). Healthcare organization is a service industry that provides intangible product to the customers. Therefore, customer satisfaction is an important measure for the service organizations. Customer satisfaction is achieved when service organizations develop innovative services. Thus, healthcare organizations bring continuous innovation in its services to ensure and provide satisfaction to the patients. By utilizing an innovative service, the customer receives satisfaction. Such service is beneficial for both; organization and patient. From patient's viewpoint, a patient gets healthy and satisfied by using an innovative services newly introduced by the hospital. Moreover, from healthcare organization's viewpoint, a patient has received quality service and satisfaction that optimizes the healthcare organization's profits and amplifies its effectualness. According to Nieva and Sorra (2003, p. 17), an innovation brings improvement in a patient's health. However, if a patient does not get satisfied, an innovation can rapidly fail or become obsolete. It may also not work due to the ignorance of factors that play a major role in the success or failure of sustainability of innovative services. There are some significant factors that have a direct impact on the sustainability of innovative services in the healthcare industry.

Greenhalgh et al. (2004, p. 594-597) examined that patients and personnel do not readily accept the innovative services in the healthcare organizations. There is a force of resistance to change that varies from ...