When innovation meets everyday clinical work: Regional expectations and healthcare priorities in practice

Abstract

This study aims to examine how regional innovation policies are enacted in a healthcare organization. Further, it investigates how innovation ambitions are described by Region Västra Götaland and how these ambitions are enacted in the clinical realities of healthcare employees. Innovation is framed by the region as mandatory to survive giving the increasing demand for healthcare in the future. The study adopts a qualitative approach, based on 17 semi-structured interviews combined with an analysis of relevant policy documents. The interviewees represent different professional roles across three administrative units and one support function. The findings indicate that the organization has strong formal policies supporting innovation. However, the results suggest that individual initiative and engaged employees are important enabling factors for effective innovation work. At the same time, there is a lack of structured career pathways for innovation work and employees often experience limited time and resources to engage in such activities. Overall, the findings suggest a gap between organizational ambitions and practical capacity for innovation. In conclusion, the organization does not appear to fully possess the conditions required to achieve its stated innovation goals. The study further demonstrates that innovation work is non-linear and highlights the effects of competing institutional logics, balancing the paradoxical tensions and managing translation processes for understanding innovation within a large public healthcare organization.