The effect of digital technologies and staff skill sets on hospital resilience: The role of supply chain information integration

In recent years, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have challenged hospitals, critical pillars of healthcare systems, revealing significant variations in their ability to respond effectively. Hospital resilience addresses the urgent need to understand how to enhance hospitals' capacity to respond effectively to crises. While numerous factors have been identified as critical to hospital resilience, they are often studied in isolation, overlooking the synergistic effects among them and lacking robust empirical validation. Grounded in the Resource-Based View, this paper investigates how key resources, namely digital technologies and staff skills, along with the capability of supply chain information integration (SCII), influence hospital resilience. Drawing on survey data from 130 Italian hospitals, the study examines the direct impact of these resources and capabilities on hospital resilience, as well as the mediating role of supply chain information integration, using structural equation modelling. The results reveal that digital technologies and external information integration capability directly affects hospital resilience. Moreover, the study underscores the importance of leveraging digital technologies and enhancing staff skills to foster supply chain information integration, which in turn mediates the relationship between these resources and hospital resilience. This research contributes significantly to theoretical and practical insights in hospital management and resilience strategies. The proposed theoretical framework enhances our understanding of hospital resilience dynamics by elucidating the direct influence of resources and capabilities, while also highlighting the mediating effect of supply chain information integration. These findings offer actionable insights for hospital managers to optimize resource allocation and capabilities amidst uncertainties, thereby fortifying hospital resilience.