Hospitals are an arena for innovation in health care. However, several innovations in hospitals remain invisible as they are often tied to ongoing improvements of practices and services. Traditional approaches for evaluating and monitoring innovation do not capture innovation activities in a broad sense, and mainly address investments and outcomes in product innovation with a commercial end target. Thus, there is a need to find a way to make “hidden innovations” in health care visible so that they can be managed strategically within and across hospitals. This paper analyses a case where this has been attempted, namely the development of a national innovation management system in the Norwegian health care sector. The results of the study reveal that the use of the management system has to some extent brought light to hidden innovations in hospitals. It has offered a way to discuss and conceptualise what innovations are and how innovation projects can be classified and described. In addition, it has created a space for reflection about the nature of innovations in hospital settings. The study shows the importance of a more profound implementation of the innovation management system towards the practice field to ensure that it serves its purpose of enabling an active and continuous mediating, learning and sharing of innovations across health care professionals. This demands capacity building, coordination of activities and use of incentives as strategic interventions for making hidden innovations more visible.
Read the entire article here.