Health care organizations as complex systems: New Perspectives on Design and Management
Annual Review of Health Care Management: Revisiting The Evolution of Health Systems Organization
ISBN: 978-1-78350-715-3
Publication date: 19 December 2013
Abstract
Purpose
We discuss the impact of complexity science on the design and management of health care organizations over the past decade. We provide an overview of complexity science issues and their impact on thinking about health care systems, particularly with the rising importance of information systems. We also present a complexity science perspective on current issues in today’s health care organizations and suggest ways that this perspective might help in approaching these issues.
Approach
We review selected research, focusing on work in which we participated, to identify specific examples of applications of complexity science. We then take a look at information systems in health care organizations from a complexity viewpoint.
Findings
Complexity science is a fundamentally different way of understanding nature and has influenced the thinking of scholars and practitioners as they have attempted to understand health care organizations. Many scholars study health care organizations as complex adaptive systems and through this perspective develop new management strategies. Most important, perhaps, is the understanding that attention to relationships and interdependencies is critical for developing effective management strategies.
Research and practice implications
Increased understanding of complexity science can enhance the ability of researchers and practitioners to develop new ways of understanding and improving health care organizations.
Originality/value
This analysis opens new vistas for scholars and practitioners attempting to understand health care organizations as complex adaptive systems. The analysis holds value for those already familiar with this approach as well as those who may not be as familiar.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
It was extremely exciting and gratifying to learn that the 2001 chapter, “Complexity science and health care management,” by Reuben R. McDaniel, Jr. and Dean J. Driebe, was one of the most highly cited in the Advances in Health Care Management series. The editor’s invitation to write an extension of that original chapter was enthusiastically received by McDaniel and Driebe, and Holly Jordan Lanham, a colleague who has been an active researcher in the area since the publication of the original chapter, has graciously agreed to join us in this endeavor. The authors would also like to acknowledge the editors and reviewers whose comments have contributed greatly to the quality of this chapter.
Citation
McDaniel, R.R., Driebe, D.J. and Lanham, H.J. (2013), "Health care organizations as complex systems: New Perspectives on Design and Management", Annual Review of Health Care Management: Revisiting The Evolution of Health Systems Organization (Advances in Health Care Management, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1474-8231(2013)0000015007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited