Adopting High-Reliability Principles in Healthcare: A Pathway to Enhanced Organizational Resilience

Abstract

Healthcare systems worldwide face growing challenges due to the complexity of their operations, particularly in ensuring patient safety, sustaining high-quality care, and mitigating risks. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed significant vulnerabilities in healthcare infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of resilience. This paper explores the adoption of High-Reliability Organization (HRO) principles as a strategic framework to enhance organizational resilience in healthcare. HROs, which maintain low failure rates despite high-risk environments, employ principles such as preoccupation with failure, deference to expertise, reluctance to simplify, and commitment to resilience. By integrating these principles, healthcare organizations can improve patient outcomes, reduce errors, and foster adaptability in the face of crises. The paper also discusses the challenges of implementing these principles, including cultural resistance and the need for leadership buy-in and continuous learning. Through real-world examples and insights drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper highlights the potential for high-reliability principles to transform healthcare systems and build resilience against future disruptions.

Keywords: Healthcare resilience, high-reliability organizations (HRO), patient safety, organizational resilience, healthcare systems, preoccupation with failure, deference to expertise, healthcare crises, COVID-19, continuous learning, healthcare quality improvement, risk mitigation