title: Coevolution of patients and hospitals: how changing epidemiology and technological advances create challenges and drive organizational innovation.
abstract: Over the last 20 years, hospitals have revised their organizational structures in response to new environmental pressures. Today, demographic and epidemiologic trends and recent technological advances call for new strategies to cope with ultra-elderly frail patients characterized by chronic conditions, high-severity health problems, and complex social situations. The main areas of change surround new ways of managing emerging clusters of patients whose needs are not efficiently or effectively met within traditional hospital organizations. Following the practitioner and academic literature, we first identify the most relevant clusters of new kinds of patients who represent an increasingly larger share of the hospital population in developed countries. Second, we propose a framework that synthesizes the major organizational innovations adopted by successful organizations around the world. We conclude by substantiating the trends of and the reasoning behind the prospective pattern of hospital organizational development.
authors.affiliation: Bocconi University and SDA Bocconi School of Management, Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management. federico.lega@unibocconi.it
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lega
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Calciolari
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000639:trends*; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity / Q000639:trends; D019049:Developed Countries; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000639:trends*; D009936:Organizational Innovation