Hospitals’ medical organization and Preparation to crisIS – HOPSIS

HOPSIS project aims to enhance hospitals' organizational ability to address emerging multiple risks by understanding the new forms of threats and crises faced by hospitals, and by analysing the current organization and preparation for major crises. It will specifically focus on the resilience of medical activity and the professional role of Crisis Medical Directors (hereafter CMD).
Hospitals increasingly face significant events that threaten their structures, infrastructures, and the lives of employees and patients, including fire outbreaks, power cuts, floods, cyber-attacks, or armed intrusions, while also managing exogenous crises such as a massive influx of patients following natural disasters, major accidents, heatwaves, or terrorist attacks, in addition to health crises like Covid. In the face of such complex and hybrid crises, response efforts require greater agility, and adaptability.
The project intends to:1/Examine the new threats faced by hospitals and assess their impact on medical organizations; 2/ Better understand the career paths and trajectories of CMDs, and grasp their impact on decision-making, coordination, and preparation and their place in the wider hospital and healthcare system; c) Propose new training, preparation, and learning methods that integrate the professional insights and experiences of CMDs.
HOPSIS brings together three research groups from various disciplines: management, sociology, philosophy, political science, geopolitics, as well as healthcare researchers and practitioners.
The project uses different methods, with qualitative case studies of hospitals (with different sizes, geographical location, and type of threat or crises faced); and quantitative analysis, through a survey on the trajectory of medical crisis directors, their role in preparation, in crisis coordination and decision-making, and their training needs.
Overall, the project aims to enhance hospitals' resilience through its organizational ability to address emerging multi-risk threats.