The Health Organization Resilience in Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: Health care facilities are responsible for preventing and controlling diseases and must have sufficient resilience to deal with crises. Iranian health care facilities have faced challenges in managing COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges to the resilience of Iranian health care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide appropriate solutions. Methods: : This qualitative study was conducted with a phenomenological approach and using semi-structured interviews with 59 managers, policy makers, health system experts, and faculty members. The participants were selected through snowball sampling. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: : The resilience challenges of Iranian health care facilities were classified into eight groups: leadership and management; planning; organizational culture; organizational learning; employee management; customer management; resource management; and process management. The most important resilience challenges were: lack of an integrated management system; poor leadership; incompatibility of the management system and the network structure; lack of a national program; poor case detection program; lack of resources; inefficient information system; negative attitude of managers and employee; organizational inertia; failure to build on lessons learned from crises; lack of workforce preparedness; lack of community-based management; declining social capital; and lack of oversight. Managers must use community-based, evidence-based, and integrated management to build resilience against COVID-19, have sufficient knowledge and experience to organize operations, use appropriate and effective coordination models, develop a creative and participatory culture, reengineer structures and processes, and provide the necessary resources. Conclusion: Iranian health care facilities face challenges that prevent them from becoming resilient, responsive, and efficient in managing COVID-19. It is essential that policy makers and managers take the necessary steps to address these issues.