Analysis of influential and influential factors on sustainable innovation in public hospitals

Sustainable innovation is recognized as one of the influencing factors in the performance of the health sector because the dynamic and complex nature of the health care industry requires innovative methods and solutions to achieve sustainability. The aim of this study is to determine factors influenced by and influencing sustainable innovation in public hospitals in Tehran.

The present applied research was conducted in two stages according to mixed methods research (qualitative and quantitative). In the first stage, in order to extract the factors influencing sustainable innovation in public hospitals, 11 people were selected from among the experts of public hospitals in Tehran by the snowball sampling method, and in-depth interviews were conducted with them. In the second stage, through a questionnaire and the fuzzy dimatel method using Excel software, the internal relationship between these factors and the influenced and influencing factors was determined.

72 codes were extracted from the interviews and categorized into 17 factors. Out of 17 factors, 8 factors were influencing ones and 9 factors were influenced ones. According to the results of the research, the manager's familiarity with current knowledge was the most influencing factor and the observance of stability was the most influenced factor in all aspects of the hospital.

Considering the benefits of sustainable innovation, it is recommended that hospital officials should provide a suitable platform for the development of sustainable innovation in hospitals with practical and up-to-date training and human resource development and the use of systems that create transparency in hospitals.